Not Just Black History Needs Recognition.

Black History Month has been a celebration since 1926. Since then we have had integration, the signing of the Civil Rights Acts, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcom X and now, President Barack Obama. I do believe that the celebration of this culture is important and should never be forgotten, however, I think a month is a little much.

John Ridley, a correspondent for National Pubic Radio (NPR) says, "Now I happen to believe that Black History Month is a set-aside. But the reason it is a set-aside is because even in 2009, most schools do a poor job of integrating black history-or Hispanic history or Asian-American history- into their yearly curriculum. Are kids really taught about the Nisei brigade or Executive Order 9066, the Trail of Tears or the National Farm Workers Association?" Ridley goes on to say, "This isn't the history of one ethnicity. It's our history. And until our history is fully explored throughout the school year, then Black History Month remains relevant."

I agree to disagree with Ridley. There is no question the black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Latino and all other ethnicity's should be celebrated. If we took a month to celebrate each one, however, there goes the year. Do we just cut out all the other holidays? What will we tell the kids? We, as a nation, need to realize that we need to celebrate our American History. As Ridley said "It's our history." therefore, we need to celebrate how far we, as a people have come.

Black History month celebrates one group of people, it is not the celebration of Executive Order 9066, the Trail of Tears or the National Farm Workers Association, if it was then it wouldn't be Black History Month. Instead it might be American History month or even the Month of Political and Government Decisions Month. In a perfect world, right? In the end Black History Month remains but we need also to account for all the other ethnicity's that have contributed to the building of our United States of America.