Black history really is American history

The following text is a guest column written by Brandy Donaldson, published in the Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch newspapers and on qconline.com on Jan. 23, 2015.

February is designated nationally as a time to recognize, celebrate and honor the unique contributions of African-Americans to the history of this great nation.

I greatly appreciate Black History Month. Typically, growing up, February was the only time in school that particular attention was paid to black historical figures and moments. I enjoyed learning about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr. and how Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

Admittedly though, that was practically the extent of what was printed in our grade school history books. And I always wondered why such history was relegated to one month of the year and only one or two chapters in the books.

Many of the questions I had back then still persist today.

Isn’t black history simply American history? Wasn’t what I was learning in February just as impactful to non-black Americans? And wasn’t there so much more to this history than those one or two chapters and 28 days a year?

Perhaps the reason it is not often incorporated into our regular grade school history lessons is because this history is mired in bigotry, hatred, prejudice and racism. It is full of tragedy that left a stain on the fabric of this nation that can still be seen and felt today. Perhaps it’s a history many would like to forget, as the struggle for equal rights for all Americans continues today.

I choose to remember.

I choose to remember in 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black American, was kidnapped from his bed in Money, Miss., then tortured, beaten, shot and dumped in a river for presumably whistling at a white woman. His assailants were never brought to justice, although they later admitted in a national magazine to killing the teen.

I choose to remember the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four innocent little black girls. The church was a common meeting place for civil rights workers rallying for equal voting rights. I recently learned while watching a television program, Condoleezza Rice was friends with one of the little girls as a child, and Smokey Robinson was friends with another. I can’t help but think those girls could have grown up to be U.S. secretary of state like Rice or a world renowned musician like Robinson. Instead, they were murdered by bigots.

I choose to remember the 1964 murders of James Earl Chaney, a black American, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, both white Americans. The three were in Mississippi to register African-Americans to vote. They were hunted by a blood-thirsty mob, shot execution-style and dumped in shallow graves for doing this work. Eighteen individuals were charged for the crime, but only seven convicted, each receiving minor sentences.

I choose to remember the cowardice assassinations of Medgar Evers, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton and countless others who were killed, beaten, lynched, tortured or bombed in their pursuit of equal rights for all Americans.

The need to learn and respect this history is so crucial. Although the stains remain, many triumphs resulted from black history. It is American history.

As February comes and goes, it is my hope that we all, as Americans, remember, honor and respect this history well beyond those 28 days.