Every year in the United States we celebrate and honor contributions of Americans during different months of the year. March is Women’s History Month. November is Native American Heritage Month. May is the month we honor Asian/ Pacific American Heritage. National Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15 to October 15 every year. February is Black History Month. This is not an extensive list.

Every year I hear people ask why we celebrate specific groups of people during these months. The simple answer, yet also complex because of the history of our country, is that we all matter. Shining a light on and recognizing the achievements and contributions of African Americans, women, Native Americans, Asian and Latinx Americans help us connect with one another. It helps us see, if we are willing, that our history and our present are intertwined. To be ignorant of Black history and of all these stories is to be ignorant of our own history.

When people are pushed to the edges of society you are telling them that they do not matter. They are marginalized. Black History Month and all these other months of recognition are ways to push back on the past and present attitudes and systematic marginalization that happens in our society.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915, is credited for coming up with the idea of having a Negro History Week. In those schools populated only by Black students during the time of school segregation, this week was a time of festivities and concerts and plays. At a time when school curriculum and life in general degraded Black students Negro History Week was meant to challenge that norm.

Over the years Black History Month became officially recognized. In 1976 while signing this into law President Gerald Ford said Black History Month was, “to seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

It is easy during the month of February to read or watch Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech or read a book about Harriet Tubman. These are good things to do. However, I challenge you to do those things and to dig a little deeper. Learn more about Black history which is American history. They are not separate but intertwined.

Have you read anything by James Baldwin or listened to one of his speeches? Have you read the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks or Langston Hughes? Have you listened to the song “Strange Fruit” sung by Billie Holiday?

Visit museums when you travel. There are the large African American history museums in Washington, DC, Detroit, Chicago, Greensboro, Montgomery and Memphis. Do not forget about the smaller ones in the towns where the tour guides’ families have lived for generations and know the area intimately. You will likely be able to hear stories and gain a perspective you could have never read in a book or seen in a movie.

Read books by John Lewis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ibram X. Kendi and Nikole Hannah-Jones. Watch documentaries by Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. about the African American experience that are too often left untold.

We must take steps to educate ourselves about Black history. That means the positive and the negative aspects. Learning about the time of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Era gives a greater understanding of today. The small amount of information that is taught in the school system is not enough. And do not stop learning on the last day of February. Always be ready and willing and looking to learn more.

When we learn more about each other and uplift the voices that have been pushed down and continue to be pushed down we will see that all people do matter. When we see what a beautiful mosaic of people we are and we act to change the unfair systems then barriers will come down and a more equitable and sustainable society will develop.

More information about Dr. Woodson can be found at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History website at asalh.org.