by R. Renee Bembry

Created on: January 21, 2008   Last Updated: February 08, 2010

While considering why Black History Month is important we should look at the initiation of Black History Month. In furtherance, since we all know most Black Americans are descendents of African slaves brought to the United States against their will, we should consider how Blacks are viewed today compared to how they were viewed when Black History Month began. In going a little further still, we should also consider the impact, or lack thereof, Black History has on the lives and outlooks of our young people. 

Let us begin with the fact that following abduction from their homelands, African slaves played tremendous roles in building the United States of America and thus allowing it to become the superior country it is today. These slaves and their descendants farmed lands they were forbidden to own; raised children they were forced to bear, and suffered bull whippings for learning to read. Yet these slaves forged onward to the day when freedom would adorn them with rights of life, they, like all men, women, and children, deserved to live as they saw fit. 

Not all African slaves became “fortunate” enough to build America, however, for thousands of those chained and shipped to this country were either dead on arrival or thrown overboard after dying on their slave ships. Of course, it is no wonder so many African slaves lost their lives en route to the US since they were left to subsist with little to no food or drink, under unsanitary “non” living conditions, in boat bellies filled with their and their fellow slaves’ urine, feces, and one can speculate vomit considering the aforesaid grotesque environment.

Packed in like sardines filling cans, these slaves had to endure their inferior living conditions for weeks or months of travel during the entirety of their 6000-mile or more journeys. In exchange for weathering said substandard conditions, these survival of the fittest enslaved Africans were guaranteed lives of pain, abuse, torture, famine, rape, murder, family separation, and virtually any other kind of suffering the imagination can envision.

Moving beyond the Revolutionary War and the Civil War in which Black Americans fought and died for this country, let us skip ahead to the era in which African Americans acquired their freedom. Even further still, let us jump to the beginnings of Black History Month. In so doing, however, it is vital to bear in mind that despite their suffrage prior to and following their participation

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