Making up for history

Until the 20th century, blacks in America didn't have a history -- at least not one that existed in most history books. Harvard-educated Dr. Carter G. Woodson decided to change that situation. He established Negro History Week in 1926, more than a decade after founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He chose the second week of February because it contains the birthdays of two men -- Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln -- whose lives were of great significance to the history of blacks in America.

But one week couldn't contain black history. February can't either, but it's the month when the 15th Amendment granting blacks the right to vote was passed, when the NAACP was founded, when Hiram R. Revels, the first black U.S. senator, was sworn in, and when civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois was born.

Locally, Southeast Missouri State University has scheduled a variety of events this month recognizing the contributions of blacks, from a speech by Black Panther founder Bobby Seale to art shows to a quiz bowl. At 7 o'clock Sunday night, Gannett Co. director of research services Dr. Reggie Murphy will give the Michael Davis Lecture at the University Center Ballroom. The lecture is named for a black journalism student killed in a hazing incident at Southeast.

Nationally, some black leaders have been boycotting Black History Month events because, they say, black history should not be relegated to the ghetto of February. It should be taught all year, they say. It should, but Black History Month accomplishes something its absorption into the larger culture would not at this point. It provides intensive opportunities for people of all races to learn about black culture.

Blacks were not the only ones kept from learning about black history. The more the rest of us know about it, the more understanding will prevail.