AMPLIFYING DIVERSE VOICES

By R K Jackson Conservative workmates and friends always asked me why Black folks insist on Balkanizing themselves with the term African- American. Are we not all just Americans? I grew up in public schools during the 1960's and early 1970's with little or no instruction on African-American contributions to American life. I always seem to recall that George Washington cut down the cherry tree and that the nation was blessed by the political genius of the Founding Fathers. Who could possibly not have learned about the inventor, Thomas Edison, or simply did not pay attention and ignored Henry Ford's concepts of mass production changing the way everything was manufactured. How about the scientific achievement of everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Jonas Salk? I learned that the conquest of...

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Educator, Entrepreneur, Author and Activist, created "Negro History Week" (now known as Black History Month) for the purpose instilling in Blacks a true value of self based in a real and accurate study of Black Life and History. He believe that if Black students were raised up and educated in an environment that taught the significant Black contributions to the civilized world, (in the areas of economics, politics, government, science, mathematics as well as the Arts), that it would not only create in them a love for self and kind, but that it would also make them better citizens. Dr. Woodson in "The Mis-Education of the Negro" showed that Blacks were not educated to be citizens, they were mis-educated to be tools of service to his once slave master. Therefore the B...