By Kirk Laughlin
Benjamin Banneker: the first casualty of the American Revolution.
George Washington Carver: a famed American innovator.
Sojourner Truth: America’s first human right’s activist.
Harriet Tubman, the conductor of the Underground Railroad.
Booker T. Washington: founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
These men and women, with their lives immortalized on the pages of history books, contributed to American history and culture in profound ways.
They are also all black, and in February, Americans reflect upon and study the contributions of African-Americans during Black History Month.
The commemoration as we know it began in 1976, and was put in February to coincide with the birthdays of Fredrick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. It was an extension of Negro History Week, which was started by Carter G. Woodson, a 1920s black intellectual and one of the first black graduates from a Kentucky university, earning his diploma from Berea College in 1904.
“Black history needs to be studied,” said Dr. Bruce Tyler, a professor in the University of Louisville history department. “The university has done a lot to advance black studies,” he said.
Tyler, who focuses on black history, also said “there are those in the academic community that want to do away with black history studies. They are spreading disunity in America.”
Rachael Rice, a sophomore nursing major, said she thinks Black History Month is good because “it allows us to acknowledge and give thanks for the contributions of the black community to our society.”
Others at the university see the celebration as more of a starting point rather than a finish line. Pan-African studies department chairman Dr. Ricky Jones said , “Black History Month is a good vehicle and rallying point, but it is not the end game. In the perfect world, black studies would be in every department, intertwined with history and culture.” Black history is a vital part of all history, he said.
“We need all sorts of diversity studies – women’s studies, Latino studies, Asian studies – if U of L wants to be a successful, viable university,” Jones said.
Tyler agreed. “Black people and other minority groups are not an anonymous sideshow. They are pivotal to history and culture,” he said.
“Black history is often overlooked in schools and society,” said freshman Tejas Shastry, a political science major. Shastry said he wishes that black history would be celebrated the other 11 months of the year, and not just in February.
