Our Heritage: American History

Do you have to listen to Rap music to be considered African-American?  Do you have to have rhythm to be considered African-American?  Or do you have to have a certain skin complexion to be considered African-American?  The answer to these questions is “no”.  None of the above has anything to do with being African-American.  Not even skin complexion because there are many other ethnic groups who are naturally darker than some African-Americans.  Even some Caucasians are naturally darker than some African-Americans.  So what standard is used to consider a person African-American?  It is a word in the English language called “Heritage”.

African-Americans are African-Americans because of their heritage.   Through this heritage many have acquired a certain state of mind.  It is a state of mind that brings forth awareness about the value of a person and their rights as a human being.  No other ethnic group in the history of the United States of America has fought as long and as hard for the essential right to be treated as human beings.

This month is a celebration of Black History, but what does that mean?  It seems to me that America has put aside a month to mostly commemorate Martin Luther King Jr’s achievements.  Sure Dr. King was an outstanding leader and orator, but he was a very small part of the African-American heritage.  So where does this heritage begin?  It begins in Africa.

Africa not only gave the world one of its earliest civilizations, she gave the world man.  In Egypt they labored to build pyramids and temples thousands of years before Europe developed stable civilizations.  Black Pharoahs ruled Egypt for centuries and became a large part of the eighteenth Dynasty.  Greeks and Romans knew and wrote about black people of Egypt and Ethiopia. The holy scriptures to three prominent religions bear irrefutable testimony to the African influence on the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  If Hagar had not born a child of Abraham; if Ebedmelech and not rescued Jeremiah from the dungeon; if the Queen of Sheba had not captured the admiration of Solomon; if Abdul Hasan Ali, black sultan of Morocco had not befriended Muhammad, the course of religious history would have been changed for countless numbers of people.

Since the time the first Africans arrived in America(slave or free), they have contributed to every aspect of American culture as we see it today.