By Justin Fenner
When I was a little kid, I remember February being a month I just didn’t like. It was too cold and too short and I always had to give Valentine’s Day gifts to kids at school I didn’t really like.
But I also had to explain to those same kids what it meant to be black. It also meant my father taught me about things that other little 5 and 6 year olds didn’t seem to know about yet: slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and marches and sit-ins and peaceful protest. So, I became the go-to guy, the one who knew the answers to the carefully formed questions from our grade-school teachers about Frederick Douglass and Vivien Thomas and Langston Hughes.
I understood that there were different elements and facts and figures and influences that had created this world, in which it was necessary for us to set aside a month out of every year to talk about the history of this group of people. But after a while, I started to notice the same kind of patterns in the way people approached February.
“Black History Month actually kind of irritated me, because everybody focuses on the same figures,” says Owen Black, a senior marketing major. “Everyone knows what to expect.”
“I feel like every year I learn the same information about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X or Rosa Parks,” says Jaimie Small, president of USC’s Association of African American Students. “There’s so much more out there that we don’t know that just doesn’t get talked about.”
So the question stands: Is it beneficial to focus on a specific group of visionaries and to retell their stories year after year?
“It’s Black History Month, so people think the only thing you’re supposed to talk about is history,” says Chris Leevy Johnson, an African American studies professor. “You want people to appreciate the history so they appreciate where we are now. Not only how far we’ve come, but also how far we have to go.”
And in the realm of lauding black people for what they’ve contributed to our society, there’s a long, long way to go.
“It’s interesting that Black History Month takes place during the month that has the least days,” says Nathan Carnes, a science education professor. “If we moved it to January, there still wouldn’t be enough days to celebrate people, even if we doubled up on every day.”
And because 28 – or 29 – days isn’t enough to celebrate the totality of black achievement, February serves as a sort of highlight reel, focused on building awareness of the momentous achievements and major personalities of black history.
“There are lots of different individuals who have done things who are not recognized,” Carnes says.
In the interest of focusing the conversation on other black people who have made these kinds of contributions, Black’s organization, AAAS, is hosting a series called Unsung Heroes during the month of February.
“It’s basically going to focus on little known black history facts, people you may have never heard of, things you might never have heard of,” Small says.
But while the unknown black heroes of the past are slowly coming into the focus, what happens to those blacks who are making significant contributions in the here and now?
“I think there are some pockets where the focus has shifted from some of the traditional historical figures to some of the more contemporary or some of the individuals in the background,” Carnes says.
The biggest contemporary name in black achievement is, of course, Barack Obama. But as visible as he is, there are multitudes of blacks – like the groundbreaking surgeon Ben Carson, the engineer Valerie Thomas, the inventor Mark Dean – who, in February, are gently pushed to the side in favor of black history heavyweights like Sojourner Truth and Benjamin Banneker.
Small says that’s OK. “If you do something big it should be recognized that day, that week, that month,” she says. “We shouldn’t have to wait an entire year to come back and celebrate a contribution that’s made presently.”
“It’s like in a business,” Black says in accordance with Small. “You have to check your budget and check all your finances every month before you do anything. You don’t wait until one point in the year to say, oh wow, we’re overspending, or we’re not on target.”
And maybe the target is a little unclear. Black History Month has had such a specific purpose for so long. It’s only now, after electing a black man to our nation’s highest office, that historians have begun to question the celebration’s efficacy.
February represents different things for different people. For some it’s a time to reflect on the past, for others, it’s a time to plan for the future. But regardless of what it means to an individual, Black says, the month generally feels like a reminder that there’s more work to be done.
“You can’t put your finger on it,” he says, “but you know that once you get to February, there’s something that you have to do.”
