Many years ago, Mike Wallace interviewed Morgan Freeman on “60 Minutes” and asked him about Black History Month. I’ve never forgotten Mr. Freeman’s abrupt reply: “Would you want a month?”
Mr. Freeman’s answer made it perfectly clear that a month is insufficient time for the teaching of Black history. How would a white person, like Mr. Wallace, feel about having their history reduced to one month? Mr. Freeman was correct those many years ago and his statement then still resonates today (“Anne Arundel school board approves LGBTQ+ history, county African-American history courses,” Feb. 3).
As a retired social studies teacher, I don’t like the entire concept of Black History Month because it implies that Black history is separate from American history. It also incorrectly implies that one-tenth of the school year is sufficient time to cover Black history. This relegates Black history to a minority status within American history and, more importantly, should they choose, it also allows educators not to focus on the subject for the other nine months of the school year.
It is impossible to properly teach American history without teaching about all people including Black Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and other minorities throughout the entire school year. Can one teach Black history without mentioning whites or vice versa? Of course not. It is all one story, one narrative, one history. We certainly do not need or want two or three versions of American history with competing narratives because it is all a shared history. Whether we like it or not, warts and all, it is our history and it is incumbent upon us to teach it as a single narrative that is neither sugarcoated nor whitewashed nor limited to a singular or prevailing view.
Public school is not the place to segregate our shared history and to some extent, that is precisely what Black History Month does. Public school is the place to teach one narrative of American history that is inclusive of all the peoples that contributed to the story of us. The way to fully legitimize Black history is for it to be included in the daily narrative of our history. Our textbooks must reflect the fact that our history includes many important people and events that, to date, have been excluded.
All of this is not to say that Black History Month was a mistake because it started the process of integrating the history of Black Americans into our history. But it has obvious limitations, and it is time to move on and make sure Black history is an integral part of all American history and that it is taught every step of the way throughout the entire school year.
Personally, I taught Black history all year and the preparation and research for those lessons was not provided by any school district or any of the approved textbooks. We must make it easier for teachers to integrate Black history into their daily lesson plans.
I suggest that everyone should ask themselves the question Mr. Freeman posed to Mr. Wallace: “Would you want a month?”
Dudley Thompson, Girdletree
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