ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020054
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: KAREN DAVIS PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
It is with mixed feelings of excitement and disappointment that I greet February - Black History Month.
The disappointment comes not because the history of black Americans and our African roots are not significant, but because the month brings with it a mad drive to cram the history of a race into one shortened month.
Included in the observance are notable television specials revisiting the civil rights struggles, examining the roots of black music and chronicling the lives of great black Americans. I plan to soak up every minute of documentary and file footage, until frustration about the similarities of today and yesterday force me to turn away.
I guess one month of truth is better than nothing.
At the same time, I should not have to wait 11 months to see programming, read about or attend events focused on blacks in history. Most of the events and tributes are not only important events in black history, but American history. Without including black history, the story of this country's history is incomplete.
What gets me is how much of this history most Americans remain unaware of. The history of blacks in this country is just as important as stories of the Mayflower, Civil War and Great Depression.
Yet, many school textbooks remain without a true characterization of ``black history.'' The only time they mention black folk is in the chapter on slavery or the several paragraphs about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Some may call it adequate. Others may call it unimportant.
I call it a shame. A shame that tens of thousands of American children will grow up not having an accurate picture of the contributions made by African descendents in America. A shame that grown folks, who ought to know better, would continue to behave as though blacks have made no contributions and should therefore be treated inferior.
Endesha Ida Mae Holland, a Mississippi native who joined the freedom fighters in a campaign to register black Mississippians to vote in 1964, recalls the low self-esteem that gripped many of Mississippi's black communities and initially kept blacks from speaking out about civil rights atrocities.
``We were told blacks had done no great things...they hadn't done anything,'' Holland, now a college professor and playwright, said on a PBS special that chronicled the history of the voting rights campaign. ``We had nothing we could be proud of.''
Nothing to be proud of. Little to aspire to or strive for.
What if Mississippians, black and white, as well as Americans throughout the rest of the country knew of Benjamin Banneker, a black mathematician, astronomer, inventor and writer who helped survey Washington D.C.
What a shame that no one ever told them of Dr. Charles Drew, who created the blood plasma bag and set up blood banks during the early days of World War II. Drew was the first to initiate the use of plasma, the liquid part of blood that can be stored long-term, in blood transfusions.
Or of Garrett Morgan, who in 1912 invented the gas mask that is used by police and fire departments and continues to save the lives of American soldiers.
When today's neighborhood groups, in the name of safety, lobby for a light to slow traffic on a busy venue, they have Morgan - a black man - to thank for the invention of that traffic light in 1923.
And drivers who dread the thought driving a ``stick shift'' car have Richard B. Spikes, a black man, to thank for inventing the automatic gear shift in 1932.
Home owners and landscapers should try imagining life without the assistance of J.A. Burr's 1889 invention - the lawnmower.
Imagine the lives that have been saved since 1872, when T.J. Marshall, a black man, invented the fire extinguisher.
What business could thrive and survive had not Granville T. Woods, a black man, invented the telephone transmitter?
From pencil sharpeners to fountain pens, from dust pans to egg beaters, from ironing boards to folding chairs, from tricycles to golf tees, the inventions of black Americans permeate our society. But the notion that black history is American's history refuses to sink in.
``When the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, `There lived a great people - a black people - who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.' This is our challenge and our overwhelming responsibility,'' the Rev. King once said.
Thirty years later, however, such an inclusive, mainstream history book has yet to be accepted and widely distributed.
I'll continue to enjoy the forums and workshops and television programming and celebrations that Black History Month brings each year, and continue to share the times and dates with others.
But how long can we as a country allow such significant information to be segregated into 28 or 29 days, then ignore and deny that history the other 11 months of the year?
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB