Every February we celebrate Black History Month here in the United States, and every February like clock work we hear people attacking the very idea of Black History Month, which often morphs into complaints about HBCU's, BET, and any other organization or celebration that focuses on Blacks as a group. And sadly for me some of the loudest complaints come from my conservative brethren. So today, I am going to explain to you why Black History Month still matters, and why it is so important to all of us...and especially Blacks.

When Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week, America was deep in the throes of Jim Crow segregation. Blacks were never taught that they had any history besides one of alleged barbarity in Africa and deprivation as slaves and share croppers in America. The Harvard educated Woodson knew better, not because he had been taught about it at Harvard, but because he had done his own research and found out that Blacks had much more to look back on than slavery. There were great kingdoms in Mali and Ghana, great university cities like Jenne and Timbuktu, glorious rulers like Mansa Musa and Menes, great cities like Menefer and Kilwa that no school was teaching to its Black students. So Mr. Woodson, seeing this appalling lack of knowledge of the history of Blacks in society, took it upon himself to set aside one week every February to teach that history to anyone who wanted to learn it and to make sure those Blacks understood that there was glory in their history and not just misery.

And the same lack of knowledge that so appalled and inspired Carter G. Woodson exist to this day, in spite of the morphing of Negro History Week into Black History Month. Sure, all throughout February there are school lessons about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, and now I am sure that Barack Obama will be included in the pantheon of heroes as well. And there is talk of Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods as well and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem lies in the fact that even now Black history is either largely ignored, or is taught in the same tired timeline...slavery to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights movement to the election of Obama. Period. But that is not all that we are.

I have found that the people who regularly frequent this space are some of the more intelligent people out there, so I want to ask you a few Black history questions in an attempt to make my point...feel free to use a reply post to answer the following questions:

1. What is the significance of the year 1482 in Black history?
2. What is the significance of the year 1619?
3. Who was Mansa Musa, and what was his importance?
4. Who was Menes and what was his importance?
5. What is the significance of the years 1803-04 in Black history?
6. Who were the Moors, and what is their significance?
7. Identify Benjamin Banneker and list one notable accomplishment.
8. Who was Jean-Baptiste DuSable?
9. How many Africans fought in the Revolutionary War, combined?
10. What did the Constitution of the United States say about the slave trade?

That's ten simple questions, and I would wager right now that the majority of the people who respond to this little quiz, without the aid of the internet, would likely fail. And not just White folks, but Black folks as well. And the reason is that we are not being taught! It is not some covert conspiracy to shut Black history out of history curricula, it is simply that the same incomplete history is taught from generation to generation and becomes the accepted history. And it happens at all educational levels and at all types of schools. I am a history major at an HBCU, have taken all of the prescribed African American history courses, have gotten A's in all of them, and in only one have we looked at the history of Blacks extending from Africa to the present. The rest followed the same time line that I laid out earlier, with a few extra details added in for flavor.

But it is during Black History Month that we get the opportunity to have a broader horizon of Black history opened up to us, when we really take the time and have an opportunity to get deeper than just a surface view of the subject. And until the accepted history of Blacks in America can be revamped, and curricula are changed to offer a more holistic view of Black history then Black History Month will continue to be needed. You see, Black History Month isn't just for Blacks. It is for all of us to be able to take a closer look at history and to see where Blacks come from, to expand our horizons and knowledge base, and to gain an appreciation that Blacks have a history beyond slavery and Jim Crow. It allows us to appreciate the history of the Moors, of Askia Muhammad, and Richard Allen and to share that history with the entire American society. It allows us to all come to the realization that Blacks have just as rich a historical heritage as the Italians, Greeks, or English and that history is just as wonderful. It allows us to get a sense of where Blacks come from, where we are, and how we got here. It is not to shut out anyone, but is an invitation for you to join in our celebration of our unique history.

Black History Month remains important because it is not just for us Blacks, but is an opportunity for all of us to learn, grow, and appreciate one another. And that is why we should all happily celebrate Black History Month.