Why is Black History Month Important to me

“We stand on the shoulders of great minds and events before us " Ernie Mixon

When I was very young in grade school, I used to ask myself and fellow students, Dang... See More… why do we have to study history? Who cares what happened in 1712? I could careless about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and all those other white American heroes. In my era of grade school that’s all they really taught us. It’s no wonder a black kid like me from the inner city ghetto was turned off to it completely.

 

I came home one day told my older sister Carolyn, about my upmost hatred for history. My older sister by seventeen years told me our history was rich with strong important African Americans like -Denmark Vesey Inspired by the revolutionary spirit and actions of slaves during the 1791 Haitian Revolution, and furious at the closing of the African Church, Vesey began to plan a slave rebellion. His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822, became known to thousands of blacks throughout Charleston and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and his group of slaves and free blacks to slay their owners and temporarily seize the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Two slaves opposed to Vesey's scheme leaked the plot. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey., ....Benjamin Banneker, Dr. Charles Drew, Marcus Garvey, The Slave trade of our ancestors for over 400 hundred years!, Africa and the great empires, Egypt –the Pyramids, science, The American Freedman during the 1600-1700’s – American Blackman and women in the North who were never slaves, owned property and were skilled craftsman, and businessmen and on and on.

After that extended talk and many more like it, I became very interested in history… because now I saw it through the eyes of a young black boy in America. I immediately saw the relevance to me and how it would come to shape my thinking and intellectual curiouristy from then until now. History to me is a reflection of the past events and people that have helped to shape the world that we live into today. If you fell to understand it’s relavance of yesterday, you are doomed to repeat massive mistakes that happened in the past. I feel many of out so called leaders of today havenot studied our history while they were in school, grade school, high schools, and colleges or they would not continue to take us down the paths of failure our country is in today i.e. economic downfall of America much like the 1929 stock crash in America many many decades ago now.

Therefore I will continue our quest down the road of African American history this month whereby I will highlight individual great African Americas who have helped shape and build the United States into the greatest superpower in Modern day history. The stories are vastand there are far too many for me to list in one month. My only hope and desire while doing this project is that these great people can inspire you to bring out the greatest that lies within every human being on this planet. We just need the proper education and guidence towards leading us towards our own inner greatness. ... See More for yourself... Study history.

Ernie Mixon February 2010