It is difficult for depressed African Americans to know that they are a part of the larger story of the history of the world. The history of the modern world was made, in the main, by what was taken from African people. They raided and raped the cultures of the world, mostly Africa, and filed their homes and museums with treasures, then they called the people primitive. History, I have often said, is a clock that people use to tell their political time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography.
History tells a people where they are and what they are.
Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be. There is no way to go directly to the history of African Americans without taking a broader view of African world history. Until it uses its own talents, takes pride in its own history, and loves its own memories, it can never fulfill itself completely. This, in essence, is what African American history and what African American History Month is about. The phrase African American or African American History Month, taken at face value and without serious thought, appears to be incongruous.