By John McCallum
Editor 

Black History Month should encourage the study of everyone's history

Write to the Point

 

Last updated 2/4/2016 at 3:03pm



“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

These are the words of historian Carter G. Woodson, as quoted in the article “Negro History Week” from the April 1926 edition of the Journal of Negro History. Woodson, along with members of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, played key roles in the creation of a week celebrating the accomplishments and history of African-Americans beginning in that same year.

Originally the observance was held during the week that included Feb. 12 and Feb. 14, the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and African-American social reformer, writer and statesman Frederick Douglas, both of which were celebrated by black communities. While its originally reception was lukewarm, Negro History Week eventually over time became Black History Month, taking place this month in the United States and Canada and in October in the United Kingdom.

Woodson believed that teaching black history and tradition was important to the survival of African-American culture and of blacks themselves. The observance has sparked criticisms, ranging from the accusation — generally from whites — that it’s racist to one that claims it reduces complex historical figures to simplified black heroes.

In a 2005 “60 Minutes” interview with Mike Wallace, Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman leveled another criticism that I’ve also heard from my fellow white brothers.

According to a transcript from Snopes.com:

Wallace: Black History Month, you find ...

Freeman: Ridiculous.

Wallace: Why?

Freeman: You’re going to relegate my history to a month?

Wallace: Come on.

Freeman: What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Come on, tell me.

Wallace: I’m Jewish.

Freeman: OK. Which month is Jewish History Month?

Wallace: There isn’t one.

Freeman: Why not? Do you want one?

Wallace: No, no.

Freeman: I don’t either. I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.

Wallace: How are we going to get rid of racism until ...?

Freeman: Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I’m saying?”

It would be nice if more of us did hear what Freeman is saying. How would one confine someone’s history, culture and traditions to just a month?

But more to Freeman’s final point, how do we stop referring to each other by using racial identification? Perhaps by understanding, as Freeman says, that black history in this country is forever intertwined with white history.

For many people that’s uncomfortable because we have to then deal with the elephant in the room — the elephant of not only slavery, but white America’s attempts to keep black Americans down socially, culturally and economically, post-Civil War. Many whites don’t want to view that as their problem because, well that was then, this is now and I wasn’t involved in how we treated blacks.

Unfortunately, history doesn’t care. My ancestors on the McCallum branch of the family tree came to the United States in the 1870s, but one way or another, we played some role in how this country is today. Same with those on my mom’s Hamilton/Tenant/Mellor strand — one of which fought in the “War Between the States.”

The same applies to everyone else, whether it’s a positive, negative or neutral influence. Until we understand that our history — black and white — is as woven together as a DNA strand, and come to grips with it, we will never realize Freeman’s final point, regardless of skin color.

So during Black History Month this February make a resolution to learn a little history — black, white, brown, yellow and red, if we must still use colors. We might just find out that we are repeating past mistakes, mistakes that might bring on all of our extermination.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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