February has been recognized for decades as Black History Month, a time when people stop to remember the struggle of human rights in America, to celebrate black heritage and culture and to analyze the struggles that remain today.
But some feel the month is not the only time to remember black history.
Lane Community College Professor Mark Harris, who teaches a course called The African-American Experience, said he would teach black history all year if he could.
“Black history is every day,” he said.
The University’s Black Student Union co-Director LaTina Lewis agreed.
“It’s Black History Month, but yet that’s not the only time I’m proud of my heritage,” Lewis said.
Black historian Carter G. Woodson initiated the month with Negro History Week in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance, Harris said. It was extended to a month in response to the 1965 Watts race riots in California, he added.
University History Assistant Professor Martin Summers said it is important to recognize Woodson’s individual crusade.
“He’s really a very significant figure,” he said. “This is his legacy.”
Summers said he teaches black history throughout the school year so he doesn’t focus solely on February. But he said the month provides all Americans with a time to reflect on a “somewhat neglected history.”
“It is, I think, important for us to have this month,” he said.
He added that it is also important to focus on more than just the “larger-than-life historical figures” of black history.
“I think it’s more common for people to think about kind of the extremely positive aspects of African-American history,” he said. “It tends to kind of focus on African-American contributions.”
Sophomore sociology major Jesse Krichbaum said she learned mostly about significant figures in black history and the civil rights movement during the month when she was in high school.
“I wouldn’t say that’s all it’s about, but it plays a big part in it,” she said. “It just doesn’t seem right to put it all into a month.”
Summers said people need to remember the “gritty underside” of the history and issues like discrimination that exist today in order to put black history into context.
Jennifer Yamada, a senior studying Japanese and international studies., agreed that minority history in general tends to be “glossed over.” She said as part Japanese-American, she is disappointed that Japanese-American history, along with other minority history, is not focused on more by mainstream society. She said for this reason, events such as Black History Month are important.
“It seems like public education doesn’t focus a lot on that on its own,” she said. “It’s kind of like you have to create little holidays for every minority.”
Lewis said she feels black history should not necessarily be separated from U.S. history.
“Normally when people in the United States talk about history in the United States, it’s excluding minorities,” she said, adding that there is no such thing as “Caucasian history.”
“The United States history is everybody’s history,” she said.
Harris said “Africans in America” still have many struggles to overcome. He said, for example, that he will not consider America a “mature civilization” until a black man or woman becomes president.
“Until then, we’re barely worthy of the word ‘civilization,’” he said.
Ethnic Studies Program Office Coordinator Donella-Elizabeth Alston said she sees the month as a reminder of her family’s accomplishments in the face of adversity.
“It definitely does bring to my mind just sort of the litany of my family struggles,” she said.
She said the month reminds her that without her family’s sacrifices, she wouldn’t be where she is today — with a college education working in a program such as ethnic studies.
“In those quiet moments, that’s what it means to me,” she said.
She said there is still work to be done, although there have been many human rights improvements in America.
“There are a lot of things that still need to be changed,” she said.
Lewis said the BSU will hold events throughout the month, including the Black Heritage Ball on Feb. 20. During that week, members will also set up a table in the EMU with information about black history and the BSU.
“It’s important to let the campus community know that we are here and that we’re active and we have a voice,” Lewis said.