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The contributions of every sub-set of our populace weave together throughout history to form the fabric of the country we are today. By keeping these histories separate, we encourage a cultural ignorance likely not found in any other country. In doing so we are teaching future generations that our country lacks a heritage of its own, when nothing could be further from the truth. We should be celebrating the diversity afforded us by living in a free country. We should be rejoicing in the anomalous nature of our aggregate heritage as Americans.

We should focus instead on the similarities that make us uniquely American. Rather than cutting our collective history apart as though each group's experiences are separate entries in an outline, we should learn to recognize history as a timeline. Every race, creed, religion and nation of origin influences every other.

By putting only certain groups under a microscope, and only for a set period of time each year, we lose sight of the big picture.

Are the Tuskegee Airmen only important for their role in African American history or also for their amazing accomplishments during World War II? What of the effect they had on military race relations?

A similar query might arise when one considers the Navajo "Windtalkers", also of WWII.

We are all oar-men of the same vessel. Without a coxswain to direct us as a unified group, our progress is hindered and we may even find ourselves paddling in a circle. Changing to an integrated curriculum of American History could be just the steersman we need.

The story of Alfred Blalock, a white Cardiologist and his black lab assistant Vivien Thomas tells of an important time in American history. Amidst the backdrop of the Jim Crow laws of the 1940's, Blalock and Thomas developed the art of cardiac bypass surgery at John's Hopkins University. Blalock suggested the initial hypothesis, but if it hadn't been for Thomas' unique talents in fabricating the instruments needed, and his innate surgical ability (obviously, he had no medical degree) the procedure likely never would have been perfected.

At the time it was considered common-knowledge that to operate on the heart was a fool's errand. Had they been unable to find success with their first human patient, research would have been abandoned and they would have been marked as failures. If not killers.

Blalock defied convention by inviting Thomas (who had more practical experience performing the surgery on dogs) into the operating room to advise him. The procedure was a success, and saved the life of a terminally ill girl known as Baby Eileen.

Should this story be only considered for its effect on African American history? Or the history of medicine? Or should it only be recorded in the annals of US race relations?

I submit that all of these fall under the larger umbrella of American History.

Concentrating on history as a running timeline would mean that when one reached the 1940's, the influence provided by Thomas and Blalock would be understood by the student without singling-out either man. Clearly, Thomas was an amazing man on many levels. His brilliance, tenacity and courage deserve to be celebrated by all Americans. Neither of these men would have been able to achieve the amazing results they did without the presence of the other.

This should be the goal of teaching American history; how the unique circumstances afforded citizens of this country have prove time and again the power of diversity.

Learn more about this author, Kevin Reilly.
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