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.

African-Americans like Benjamin Banneker made the first wooden clock in America which predicted a solar eclipse with astonishing accuracy.  Dr. Daniel hale Williams was the first person to successfully operate on the human heart.

Example of political figures like Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Harold Washington, Barbara Jordan just to name a few.  Civil Rights leaders like Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Benjamin Hooks and Dick Gregory.

Educators and scholars like W.E.B Boise, George Washington Carver and Kenneth Bancroft.  Entertainers like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Lena Horne, Sidney Poitier, Chuck Berry and many more; athletes like Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, Hank Aaron, Althea Gibson, Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays and others; writer like James Baldwin, Alex Haley, Virginia Hamilton, Langston Hughes and Ralph Elision.

Organizations that have influenced American history include the Black panther party, Black Muslims and Urban league to name a few.  Other historical events include Black codes, Jim Crow laws, Dred Scott decision, Freedman’s bureau and the Reconstruction.

As you can see, this is quite a bit of information that only scratches the surface of black history.  It is truly impossible to learn this history in one month.  Because when you read about the achievements African-Americans have made, you must at the same time read about the social, political, artistic and economic struggles of America that made these achievements possible.  Therefore, I do not believe we should have Black history month.

The history of African-Americans should be inculcated into every American history book.  It is pertinent information all Americans need to know.  You can’t get the real story of America without knowing the past of “all” the groups of people that brought forth its existence.  Without knowing and understanding the past, you can’t know and understand the present.

Unfortunately, because so much history has been excluded from the history books, the average American does not know their history as a nation.  This is a shame, because this nation has come so far and yet, it has so much farther to go.  We as a nation need to come to accept that we are Americans no matter what our hertiage is.  We have a common history whether it has been a descendant of a slave or slave master, freedom rider or white citizen council member.  This ethnic separation of American history must change in order for us to move forward as a nation.  As president Obama stated election night: ” it’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, Black, White Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red states and Blue states: we are, and always will be, the United States of America”.