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Sometimes people just need to stop. Black History Month predates all of those by decades and February was chosen since it was the month Frederick Douglass was born.
It was needed before because of my generation didn't get any information about famous black people or about Jim Crow or anything in school. As a matter of fact, my earliest memory of black people was watching the Newark riots on TV. It was frightening. There was nothing to explain to a kid why this was happening.
Sometimes people just need to stop. Black History Month predates all of those by decades and February was chosen since it was the month Frederick Douglass was born.
Folks might stop celebrating various "history months" when they run out of months...
I'm middle-aged and grew up out west. We learned about Rosa Parks, MLK and others who were instrumental in the civil rights movement. It wasn't very interesting to me because it didn't have any relation to me. Teenagers are so unconcerned with anything outside their own little worlds.
It was only when I got older, and learned about little-known Blacks like Crispus Attucks, Bass Reeves and Matthew Henson that I had an appreciation for Black History Month, since it was searching for someone for my kid to report on that led me to their stories. I appreciate now what MLK did (and have mixed feelings about Rosa Parks after I found out about Claudette Colvin), but not many people can relate to him - like any other great leader, he seems almost unreal. It's the somewhat more ordinary individuals that inspire me.
To the OP's point, I haven't seen my kids come home with anything related to Black History this year, but then we're only halfway through.
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