“My Journey Continues” this week is written by guest columnist, Paul Buntyn, Pastor Emeritus of Abundant Life Christian Church in San Marcos, in honor Black History Month. Pastor Paul says, “I trust this information will enhance why I seek teaching an inclusive American History. I am available for discussion on bridging the gap in equality-teaching of history.”
Black History Month was an enlargement of “Negro History Week,” pioneered by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, (PhD, Harvard University) in 1927. On Wikipedia, one learns why he made that effort — He found that the American Historical Association, of which he was a member, had no interest in Black History. Convinced that the role of his own people in American history was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, he wrote “It is not so much a Negro History Week as it is a History Week. We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in History.” As a scholar, Dr. Woodson devoted his life to historical research to preserve the history of African Americans.
In the 1970s, the Civil Rights Movement brought awareness that the general population of our country knew extraordinarily little about: The role played throughout history by African Americans. Since 1976, every president has proclaimed February as Black History Month.
