OPINIONS AND FACTS
News, Features, And Editorial Comments
Negro History Week - Why Not Every Day?
(EDITOR'S NOTE: ARTICLES
APPEARING IN THIS COLUMN
DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OFFICIAL EDITORIAL VIEWPOINT OF THE
GUILFORDIAN.)
A Black man invented the
traffic light. . .A Black man
was the first hero of the American Revolution. . .A Black man
was the first hero of the second
World War. . .A Black man
planned the city of Washington...
A Black man performed the first
successful heart operation. You
don't read about these people
in American history books. The
only time you hear about these
things is during Negro History
Week. Why?
Think back. Who was the first
black person you ever remember? The maid, the butler,
the garbage man? If you can see
or hear, I bet it was Amos and
Andy. This is how the white
man characterized the black
race. As time went on the
dimple-wonder of the screen,
Shirley Temple, danced her way
into the hearts of millions with
Bo Jangles Robinson, one of the
greatest dancers of all times.
Mr. Robinson taught her how
acting he had to be either a
butler or a slave. Then came
the movie " Green Pastures" with
an all black cast but portrayed
as the white writer saw it, the
Amos and Andy type all over
mentary and high school with Week? Did you ever think that
my white teachers. This is what the only black person you can
you learned, too: Black people remember shined your shoes and
were stupid, lazy, cannibalistic the only Indian anyone ever
people who like to get drunk cared about is on the nickel?
and gamble. I didn't learn Everybody melted into this pot
that Crispus Attucks was the but the blacks and that is the
first American to die for this
country. None of those books
said that Benjamin Banneker was
a black mathematician who published one of the first Almanacs
ican clock.
Stupid and lazy people, huh?
When we celebrated Columbus
Day, who talks about the pilot
of the Nina, Alonzo Pietro, a
Black man who helped discover
America. When they speak of
Rembrandt, Rodin, and Picasso,
why don't they talk of Henry 0.
Tanner? Don't the writers of
those books know that this black
man has paintings hanging alongside the world greats in the
The authors of history books
must, therefore be prejudiced.
Once a year you hear about
famous black people. Students
can't forget who discovered A-
bomb but they are never taught
that a black man discovered blood
plasma and that a black man
was second in command on the
trip to the North Pole. Sometimes, surely, you hear it. Once
a year—Negro History Week.
This country is called the
melting pot of the world. So
why don't we have Spanish History Week and Greek History
truth and the truth hurts. It's
time to put us in the history
books correctly. Make Negro
History Week an everyday event.
Think about it.
Minnette Coleman
