The Broncos’ Voice
February 1994
IN PERSPECTIVE
by Dr. Phillip McGuire
Historically, African-Ameri
can history has been largely
what white historians have said
it was. It has been their inter
pretations that are most famil
iar to both black and white
America. More often than not,
the interpretations that
emerged had the effect of forc
ing most African-Americans to
suffer feelings of debasement
and the psychic trauma of
nondescriptness. These inglori
ous historians took it upon
themselves to distort a people’s
heritage and, in many respects,
to neglect completely the history
of African-Americans by refus
ing to admit that black America
had a past worth recording.
It was not until the late
1950’s and early 1960’s that
many Americans began to read
of the significant contributions
of the African-American. Having
been long neglected, the Afri
can-American finally captured
the intellect and ima^ations of
objective white historians who
began to rewrite what the ig
noble ones had sought to per
petuate. However, it is signifi
cant for Americans, all Ameri
cans, to know that since the mid-
1800’s African-American histori
ans such as William Wells
Brown, William Still, and George
Washington Williams, to name
a few, pioneered in establishing
the black experience as a re
spectable and vital entity that
touches every aspect of Ameri
can life. Unfortunately, the his
torical community chose to deny
or ignore much of what African-
American scholars had to say.
Most university and commercial
presses simply refused to pub
lish their works. This, of
course, resulted in an unbal
anced and subjective interpre
tation of the African-American
experience.
Thus it was in 1916 that Dr.
Carter Goodwin Woodson,
known as the father of African-
American history, established
the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History for the
purpose of fostering a bal
anced and positive under
standing of the African-Ameri
can heritage through a sys
tematic and scientific study of
the black experience. He, Dr.
William E. B. DuBois, and oth
ers wrote of the African-Ameri
can because they believed it
would alleviate the position of
African-Americans in Ameri
can society by re educating
both black and white America
to a greater appreciation of
the race. They also hoped that
it would inspire future genera
tions of Americans to live in
brotherhood. They, too, were
of the mindset that “the final
measure of the greatness of all
peoples is the amount and
standard of the literature and
art they have produced.”
In 1926, Dr. Woodson began
the first annual observance of
“Negro History Week” to pro
vide an effective educational
tool for the American public.
More importantly, the obser
vance of this week was begun
because Dr. Woodson believed
that race prejudice was the re
sult of historical writings and
teaching that either ignored or
denied the existence of black
achievements and contribu
tions. He also felt that if
Americans were to build for
themselves a truly democratic
society, then not one of them
should be denied the equality
of opportunity.
As we pay special tribute
to the African-American expe
rience in February during our
observance of what has
grown into “Black History
Month,” we must reaffirm that
in the development of
America, North Carolina, and
Fayetteville, the African-
American experience is more
than a few events and biogra
phies that were usually sensa
tionalized by earlier American
historians, episodes such as
the Boston Massacre featur
ing Crispus Attucks, the Under
ground Raih:oad starring the
legendary Harriet Tubman,
the Civil War and the ubiqui
tous Frederick Douglas, and
that trite old saga of Booker
T. Washington.
These epochs and figures
are important, but all Ameri
cans must be exposed, for ex
ample, to the fact that African-
Americans have been partici
pants in every phase of
America’s development; that
black physicists worked to the
finish on the Manhattan
Project, which produced the
atomic bomb that ended the
Second World War; that in
1942 Secretary of War Henry
L. Stimson admitted in his di
ary that the Army Classifica
tion Tests were deliberately
manipulated in order to make
aU African-Americans appear
intellectually and mechani
cally inferior and thus best
suited for the labor and supply
units of the military; that black
men and women, too, led the
vanguard to eradicate slavery
despite the glorification of the
white abolitionist; that a black
doctor, Dr. Charles Drew, re
searched and invented the pro
cess for blood plasma that to
day saves millions of lives.
And, despite their near-total ab
sence from general textbooks
today, African-American art
ists have been depicting Ameri
can themes and landscapes in
notable works since the mid
eighteenth century.
These examples are only a
few among many that must be
incorporated into the American
tradition if future generations
are going to inherit a balanced
and objective legacy. Only then
will all Americans and the
world at large be able to dis
card inteUectually the notion
that “everyone and everything
of importance in the history of
mankind was white” or “every
one from Jesus and the Ma
donna to Beethoven was
black.”
During the decade of the
1990’s, even the need for a
black history month, as a sym
bol of past negation and distor
tion, must disappear from the
American consciousness as we
move toward a timely and
united front against the last
vestiges of racism, fear, de
spair, and separatism.