African History
Why know African History
The American dream, the belief that every citizen of this great country can achieve utmost success despite their cultural, racial, class, or whatever background they were born into (Albee, 1961). For a country that boasts such an ethos, this should not be a topic. Yet here we are. The identity of this nation lies in the American Dream, that anyone can make it. What better to show us, inspire us that anyone can make it but the one who has been at the center of that dream, the American of African descent. And this is not to say that black history starts and finishes with slavery, it transcends every aspect of this country’s history for one not to learn it. If that is not enough, here are some more reasons why you should know black history.
One has to keep up with the times. Besides the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement hit the trends in the past year. The murder of George Floyd brought forth the topic of systemic racism and injustice. To comprehend why despite the devastating effects of the global outbreak thousands flooded the streets, one must engage African American history. One must engage the struggles of blacks to achieve the democratic freedom they cry for at the moment. the truth as depicted by Thomas Fortune, showing denial of justice to African Americans in the post-construction era. Racial injustice is not new. African Americans have stood up for voting rights, women’s rights, economic rights, and so forth. Understanding the favor behind and beyond these rights is beyond memorizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ (Hackney, 2018).
The second plaudit why you should know African American history is because there is no United States of America’s history without black history. Since the inception of the country, slavery has been described as the fundamental contradiction of our country’s roots and principles. This country was built by African Americans. The civil war and all the other wars in history including the world wars have been fought with a big African American contribution. Every generation in modern history has had the headlines made by freedom expression from or for the black community. Du Bois, Martin Luther, Mohammed Ali, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and even Barrack Obama are some of the key figures present through any period in time over America’s recent history. The truth is a black historian has always been at the center of each period of American history (West, 2017).
Lastly, at whatever angle or topic you examine America’s history, the history of the black community is written all over it. Racism and racial injustice have transcended America’s history since the first president to the recent George Floyd’s killings. Economically, the country was built by slaves. The economic freedom of African Americans must be explored to explain the huge socioeconomic differences in the country. The civil war was fought part in parcel in conjunction with the African Americans. The reconstruction era after the civil war marked a significant factor in the civil rights history of the country with the legal status of blacks determined (Brundage 2021).
In conclusion, both the enthusiast and even the modern student of American history must dive deep into the history of the African-American to understand the history of the United States. One must appreciate the contribution beyond slavery and racism. The African American history will make you comprehend the times, understand all aspects of the country’s history, and without it, there is no United States of America.
References
Albee, E. (1961). The American Dream. New York: Coward-McCann.
Brundage, W. F. (2021). 6. Race, Memory, and Masculinity: Black Veterans Recall the Civil War. In The War Was You and Me (pp. 136-156). Princeton University Press.
Hackney, K. (2018). Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You. Children’s Book and Media Review, 39(7), 11.
West, E. J. (2017). Lerone Bennett, Jr.: A Life in Popular Black History. The Black Scholar, 47(4), 3-17.
