Here’s the thing, though … the first thing, that is. The Mayflower arrived in what is now the United States of America on 11 November 1620. Every school child can tell you about the Mayflower and the people on it … people fleeing religious persecution and more. But I’m willing to bet that not a single school child can tell you about a ship that arrived more than a year before that in August 1619, the English ship White Lion, carrying 20-30 enslaved Africans who were traded in exchange for supplies in Virginia. Or the ship the Treasurer that arrived a few days later carrying still more African slaves to be bartered. Both ships were owned by a powerful English nobleman, the Earl of Warwick Robert Rich.
And this, my friends, is why I say that YES, we do need Black History Month. Sadly, if our schools taught history fairly, we might not need such. As our friend rawgod pointed out several years ago on one of my Black History Month posts, we also need an Indigenous Peoples Month, an Asian History Month, a Hispanic History Month, etc., for our education system either completely shuts out the true history of all but straight white Christians, else it whitewashes that history.
For some of us, true history begins to come to light when we start college, but what about those who never go to college? Sure, there are books, but how many non-college-educated people are likely to pick up a book about Black history just for the fun of it or study the New York Times’ 1619 Project?
It has always been the case that the schools are putting blinders on our children, failing miserably in their duty to teach them the truth about the beginnings of this country. Things like slavery are glossed over, and other things such as the Tulsa Race Riots aren’t even given honourable mention. But today, my friends, it’s even worse. Today we have states’ governors and parental advocacy groups attempting to get laws passed to actually ban the teaching of true Black history!!!
Source: Black History Month: Why? BECAUSE … | Filosofa’s Word

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