Chances are you know quite a bit about these figures in Black history. That's right, Garrett Morgan. In 1923, this African American invented the traffic light. Because teachers are looking at Black history in a whole new light. Every February, Black History Month pops up and people across America do their best to pay homage.
Video stores devote an entire shelf to Afro-American movies.
Bookstores put Afro-American novels in the front window. And teachers all across America try to think of a more creative way to teach Black history than tacking a few poems by Langston Hughes on the bulletin board. When you teach it for only one month out of the year, you just can't give full treatment. For instance, they are more likely to learn about how African Americans contributed to American efforts in World War II, and how they were organized in segregated battalions, and how African languages influenced white southern speech, and not just the other way around. In English classes, this sometimes means a change in the reading list.