Even more, the influence of black culture on America, and, logically, the identities of Americans, has been profound. A conversation on literature and poetry, while sure to include Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and T.S. Eliot, would be incomplete without a perusal of the work done by such notable artists as Langston Hughes, Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Nikki Giovanni. It is impossible to talk about Ralph Waldo Emerson, a brilliant American essayist, without talking about James Baldwin. It is impractical to mention Henry David Thoreau, the prophet of passive resistance, without mentioning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Furthermore, a discussion of American music would not be thorough without discussing all the black established musical traditions from rag to jazz to blues to gospel to rock-and-roll to hip-hop. Likewise, in a cosmographical examination of fine art, it would be incredulous to not make mention of the contributions made by such great, African-American artists as Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett and Charles H. Alston, amongst many notable others.
As well, blacks have impacted every field and focus, every subject and sphere, every theme and tradition found within the precincts of American life. Where would America be in the field of cardiology without either Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first-ever, open-heart surgery, or Dr. Charles Drew, who made the preservation of blood plasma and blood banking possible? How advanced would America be without the 150 patented-inventions of Granville T. Woods, amongst them the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which enabled messages to be sent from moving trains and railroad stations.
Could America talk about dominance in sporting competition without referring to Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan or have been able to display superiority in Hitler’s Germany without Jesse Owens during the 1936 Olympics? Would America have overcome the British without the assistance of black soldiers willing to die for their country such as Crispus Attucks or have been successful in many other military campaigns without the courageous and valiant efforts of groups like the Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen, respectively?
On the whole, blacks have tinted every cloth of American life and identity, whether it has been exemplified through the philosophical genius of W.E.B. DuBois, who superbly placed race into the context of social scientific study, by the oratorical brilliance and honesty of Malcolm X, who provided an abundance of astute expressions to the argot of black, rhetorical inspiration or inside the feminist verve of Audre Lourde, who expanded the basis of liberation politics for all women with her timely articulations of black women suffering in America.
Article comments
1 - JustOneMan
What about Italian, Polish, German, Irish, Indian, Chinese, etc, etc, etc....
JOM
2 - zingzing
did you read the article, jom, or just the title?
3 - Doug Hunter
"it would let white America off the hook"
Tell you what. You let me off the hook for slavery and I'll let you off the hook for gang violence, then as Freeman suggested we'll be back to treating each other as individuals. (which is the only workable long term solution)
4 - Baronius
This article fails to provide evidence that black history is underrepresented outside February. Even if it did, it never addresses the point of Freeman's comments: that Black History Month is intellectual segregation.
5 - ETS
Baronius -
How about you provide evidence that black history IS adequately represented outside of February? Or even DURING February, for that matter?
"Intellectual segregation" is an overly academic term that means absolutely nothing. All fields of study are segregated to some extent. They have to be to be sufficiently studied/recognized.
The bottom line is that histories of underrepresented groups wouldn't have to be individually celebrated if our country embraced a more wholistic concept of history. It's an old and simple solution for an even older and more simple issue.
6 - ETS
Doug Hunter -
You have us on the hook for gang violence? LOL. Are you keeping whites on that hook too, considering their gang and mob-like mentalities are evident throughout world history.