Black history is American History

The Cape Gazette | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sara Ford
January 28, 2022

As we move into Black History Month, we have the opportunity not only to learn about and to honor the stories, the lives, the accomplishments, the discoveries, the grit and strength of Black people, but also the responsibility to ask why should Black History be relegated to only a month, when, in fact, Black history is American history, as central to the story of our nation as is white history?

In the February edition of Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice’s “Black Voices,” Hanifah Ouro-Sama speaks most eloquently to this point. She writes: “I was expected to learn about George Washington during history class; expected to interpret the works of Edgar Allen Poe during English class; and expected to study the findings of IsaacNewton during science class. The same attention, however, was never given to Black political scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois, Black authors like Alice Walker, or Black scientists like George Washington Carver. It seemed as though our curriculum set aside teaching the contributions about Black people until February rolled around.”

Read the entire Letter to the Editor here.