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BLACK CONTRIBUTIONS OFTEN OVERLOOKED

February 14, 2009 12:36 am

FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR

EVERY February the nation comes together to celebrate the achieve-ments of Africans and African-Americans to the world.

Although it is the shortest month of the year, all of the contributions made by people of color can't be covered in any one month. Black history extends back to the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt and the Kush kingdom in the Nile River valley to the newly elected president of the United States, Barack Obama. (The New Kingdom in Egypt formed around the same time as the Kush kingdom in 3000 B.C. The Kush kingdom at one point spread across the entire continent of Africa and parts of Asia and Europe.)

Before I proceed with this article one person needs to be acknowledged for his scholastic vision and providence, the great Carter G. Woodson. Dr. Woodson, a native Virginian, is the sole reason that the United States, Canada and Great Britain acknowledge Black History Month.

In 1926, Woodson pioneered the celebration of Africans and African-Americans when he started "Negro History Week." During this time, it was designated for the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass due to their influences of improving the social conditions of African-Americans.

Negro History Week turned into Black History Month in 1976 through the perseverance of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History , an organization Woodson founded in 1915.

As a child, I learned about the plethora of contributions made by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. They, alongside many others, were responsible for establishing the United States of America. Their work is undeniable, but without the contributions of enslaved Africans and freed blacks it wouldn't have come to fruition.

Black History Month was the only time I heard about the accomplishments of my people. It was quite frustrating, because I often wondered why our contributions were relegated to the shortest month of the year.

In 1992, as a seventh-grader, I was given an opportunity of a lifetime to learn more about my culture when I was selected to become a James Farmer Scholar. This is a program named in honor of the illustrious civil rights activist Dr. James Farmer Jr., who taught at the University of Mary Washington in his later years. I had the distinct pleasure of growing up down the street from where he lived in Massaponax before his death in 1999.

Every other Saturday we would convene at UMW with our fellow scholars from the surrounding areas. We were divided into groups to attend classes to enhance our knowledge about black history as well as receive instruction on the classes we took during the week at our individual schools.

My mother also played an instrumental role in my formative years by providing a concrete foundation for me to build my learning on. By the time I was a junior in high school, I became heavily involved with the Upward Bound program at UMW, where my desire for black history became stronger.

The summer before my senior year we went on a Southern tour of the historically black colleges and universities. The wealth of knowledge I received on this trip shaped what I wanted to pursue once I went off to college the following autumn.

During my senior year, I registered for an African-American history class, but it paled in comparison to the tutelage I was receiving in the James Farmer Scholar program.

After being a student for two years at Virginia Commonwealth University I was able to focus on my degree major of mass communications and my minor in African-American studies. It was here where my mind digested an infinite amount about the history of my people and the everlasting legacy of the African influence across the globe.

My professors provided inexhaustible amounts of historical information in each one of my classes. Dr. Morris Henderson, Dr. Jill Rowe, the late Dr. Avon W. Drake, Dr. Christopher Brooks and Dr. Bernard Moitt, along with countless others, are people whom I thank for what they've given to me over the years. It is because of them I have a broader understanding of where I come from, who I am, and where I'm going.

I strongly encourage my African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian brothers and sisters to expand their minds and research more about black history because it is not only American history, but it is the world's history.

Here are some topics and people that you can begin to research: the Arab slave trade, the Sugar Revolution, marronage (runaway slaves) abolition, Timbuktu, The Talented Tenth, Stephen Biko, Bartolome de las Casas, Toussaint L'Ouverture, David Walker, Joseph Cinque, Shaka, Denmark Vesey and Eric Williams.

To quote Marcus Garvey, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."

What does black history mean to me? It means everything.

Christopher Williams is a contributing writer for Town & County from Spotsylvania County. Visit his Web site at writersedition.com. E-mail him in care of gwoolf@freelancestar .com.