Not my words—but rather the words of veteran actor Morgan Freeman. In a 60 Minutes interview with Host Mike Wallace a few years ago, Freeman said, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month? I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history,” he said, noting that there are no white or Jewish history months.
No–they’re not my words but they are MY THOUGHTS. I, too, don’t like the idea of celebrating a “Black History Month.” As an African-American baby boomer who has a vivid recollection of the past, giving us a month to acknowledge our accomplishments sounds like another “separate but equal” tradition the South was notorious for. There are too, too many African-Americans who have contributed greatly to this country whether some people want to acknowledge it or not. It’s not our fault that they were left out of the “American” History Books.
And you know what? I’ll be saying the same thing in March when we celebrate Women in History Month.
Can’t we just get on with the business of being a real “United We Stand—Divided We Fall” kind of nation?