How many times have we as a people complained that we no longer have any good leaders? So often we proclaim that our problem is that we don’t have a modern day Martin Luther King. We don’t have a great unifier, a great non-violent mobilizer who is respected and revered by the masses. Well, I think before we make such an assumption, we need to have an accurate understanding of who Dr. King really was, who he grew to be and what he actually stood for.

History books and a Monday off in January have reduced Dr. King solely to be a man who had a dream. Yes, everyone knows that he had a dream. Most know that he wanted to see the day that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. However, there are many positions he took that the media doesn’t want us to know about. They make sure to recycle the same sound bites over and over again and mold our image of him as this safe, meek, peace maker. History books will have you to believe he was viewed as an American hero. They would like for us and our children to believe that he played it safely and was met with no opposition.

It is very problematic when we allow others to define history for us. We end up only knowing what they want us to know. See, for those of us who do not know, Dr. King was a very complex man. Yes, he wrote soul-stirring speeches and he marched and fought for racial equality. However, he also championed causes that were not quite as popular. Throughout his life his views began to shift and change as often do the views

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February is a very special month to me. In addition to being my birth month it has been deemed the month to celebrate Black history. Me being born in Black History Month…coincidence? I think not. As a promoter of Black culture, history and healing I am proud that my birthday falls in a month rich with celebration of all things Black and positive.

As most of us know, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded what we now call Black History Month. It began as Negro History Week back in 1926. He started it out of his frustrations with the way Black history and Black contributions were left out of the text books and historical documents of his time. He chose to have Black History Week in February because the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln fall in that month. This is contrary to the popular misconception that February was chosen because it is the shortest month. However, I do understand how people could have made such an assumption.

Now, in 2009, over 80 years later I’m asking you if you feel Black history has been incorporated into classroom textbooks and historical documents as it should be? Are our children equipped with the proper knowledge of their culture they need in order to thrive and maintain an accurate and healthy perception of who they are? Are we guilty of only teaching them about Black history in February? What about the other 11 months of the year?

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How many times have we as a people complained that we no longer have any good leaders? So often we proclaimed our problem was that we didn’t have a modern day Martin Luther King Jr. We didn’t have a great unifier, a great non-violent mobilizer who is respected and revered by the masses. Well now we have Obama. Now we have that leader right? I think before we make such an assumption we need to have an accurate understanding of who Dr. King really was, who he grew to be and what he actually stood for. Read the rest of this entry »