More Than a Month

- ♪ Yeah ♪ [jazzy music] ♪ ♪ - Black History Month, you find... - Ridiculous.

- Why?

- You're going to relegate my history to a month?

- Oh, come on.

- What do you do with yours?

Which month is White History Month?

- [sighs] Well... - Come on.

Tell me.

- Well...

I'm Jewish.

- Which month is Jewish History Month?

- There isn't one.

- Do you want one?

- No, no, I-- - All right, I don't either.

I don't want a Black History Month.

Black history is American history.

[upbeat funky music] - It should go more than a month.

It should go 12 months of the year, every day of the year.

It should be in classes.

- We should work on what we have and build that up first before we end the whole month and then there's nothing at all.

♪ ♪ - When it comes to Black History Month, we concentrate too much on the same individuals.

And I appreciate these individuals, but I think it's putting our children in a box mentally that we as adults have to try to help them climb out of.

- I would totally miss it if it go away.

I would.

Like, don't take it away.

I mean, like, Black Power.

♪ ♪ - There shouldn't be a Black History Month.

I think it should be incorporated into history in general.

- We want our Black History Month to go on forever.

♪ ♪ - We exist 24-7, 365, and on a leap year, 366, so should our history.

♪ ♪ - Welcome to February, the shortest--and what seems like the coldest-- month of the year... Home of Valentine's Day, the occasional leap year, and sometimes we get the Winter Olympics.

- He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.

I've looked over-- - But many of us know it as Black History Month.

- And I've seen the promised land.

- And this year it's a post-racial Black History Month, whatever that means.

When I was a kid, Black History Month was cool.

- Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

- I remember the posters that used to go up on the wall-- Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Frederick Douglass.

I admire these people.

I mean, they were li ke superheroes to me.

- Martin Luther King.

- Martin Luther King.

- Martin Luther King.

- Martin Luther King.

- Martin Luther King.

- Martin Luther King.

- Rosa Parks.

- Rosa Parks.

- Rosa Parks.

- Rosa Parks.

- Rosa Parks.

- Harriet Tubman.

- Harriet Tubman.

- Harriet Tubman.

- Harriet Tubman.

- Harriet Tubman.

- Frederick Douglass.

- Frederick Douglass.

- Frederick Douglass.

- Frederick Douglass.

Sure, these four people we re important.

But it was the same four people year after year.

If you were lucky, maybe you'd get a Sojourner Truth or George Washington Carver.

And, no, he did not invent the peanut.

- But I did invent peanut butter.

- What I thought was so cool as a kid became a problem for me as an adult.

When Black History Month posters in the school hallway gave way to corporate advertisements, department-store sales, and Black-themed cu ltural events that didn't have mu ch to do with history, I began to wonder what this all meant.

Was February really a celebration of Black history or a way to say, "You Black people don't really matter outside of February, and you're not really American"?

One thing is clear to me-- the only way to solve this is to end Black History Month.

But how does one end Black History Month?

- Can I have a check on Black History Month stuff?

- At the end.

- All the way at the... - I'm a filmmaker, no t an activist.

Is it even a good idea?

I knew just who to ask.

The way that Black History Month is presented, have you ever had any problem with that or... - I think it's time for Black History Month to be mainstreamed.

And what I mean by that is, I think that it should just be in the curriculum.

- When they're not annoyed by their son's questions, my parents are both activists in their own way.

I was given the name Shukree Hassan because my parents were both Mu slim when I was born.

That was one of the things to do if you were Black and conscious in the '70s... Amongst other things.

- Must revolutionize.

If we don't take care of our community, who will, right?

- Right.

- Power to the people.

- My father banned rap music in the house, except for the socially conscious rap group Public Enemy.

For my 11th birthday, he bought me P.E.

's album "Apocalypse 91...

The Enemy Strikes Black."

You're gonna dig this one, kid.

[crowd chanting] When I was 15, my dad took me to the Million Man March in D.C. A few years earlier, I was there with my mother for what was then the largest pro-choice march on record.

- I promise you won't be the only boy there.

- You got your sign?

All right, are you ready to kick some ass?

- My point is, I was raised to question what was accepted as the norm and why.

Black History Month, with its stock characters and not-so-subtle message that Black people only had history in slavery and civil rights, well, that was problematic and indicative of a deeper American problem.

If Black people could be th ought of as footnotes in American history, what does this say about how we're viewed in American society?

If there was a petition whose end goal was to dissolve-- a dissolving of Black History Month, would you be in support of that type of petition?

- Hmm.

- I got to think on that.

- I wouldn't.

- Why not?

- Because I think there are bigger issues that have to be addressed.

I'm not sure that anyone would know the contributions of Black people anymore.

- You don't think-- - I don't have confidence that-- I don't have the confidence that anyone would... Say anything good about Black people anymore.

- I agree with Mom.

I can't... Add really anything.

I echo her thoughts.

- Though they believe something needs to change, my parents don't see wisdom in a petition to end Black History Month.

But I think a petition is a pretty good idea-- at least a place to start...

Although it's probably a good way to get your Black card taken.

- You are no longer Black.

- We're gonna take you behind the scenes... - Well, today marks the first day of CBS 2 HD's African American hero contest.

Third, fourth, and fifth graders can participate by submitting a 350-word essay on their African American hero.

The winner gets a... - This February, armed with a camera and a little courage, I decide to do something a little out of the box... Something ultimately my parents would be proud of...

I hope.

[vehicle horn honks] How y'all doing?

Would you like to sign my petition so we can have Black history all year?

Sign my petition, sir?

Sign my petition, people?

Black history is American history?

- No.

- No, wow.

Man, tough crowd in Times Square.

That's for sure.

So you guys are from-- - We're from the U.K. - Yeah, see, I'm from the U.K. - All right.

We teach Black American history as well.

And we spend at least a couple of months on it.

- Where are you from?

- California.

- California, all right.

Do you guys get a lot of Black history throughout the curriculum?

- They really just focus it on February.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- I don't think I can sign that, because we go to school out in the West, predominantly white university.

I feel it is empowering through Black History Month, because that is the only time that we get to speak.

- I want to fill this whole page up.

- I had a pretty liberal Am erican history teacher in high school.

He used to call Columbus Day, like, Native American Massacre Day kind of thing.

- Excuse me, sir.

I'd like you to sign my petition.

- Sorry.

- You don't have to be sorry.

- Right.

It's ridiculous.

It should be taught as part of American history.

If that's what it's about, I'm 100% with you.

- Sign my petition, ma'am?

We try to have Black History Month all year round--Black history.

- Of course.

Of course.

- We might have to put Black History Month on hold for a little bit.

All right, all right.

- I wish I'd have had my whole neighborhood with me.

- We might have to take over.

We might have to...

I walk away with far more signatures than I anticipated.

- I'll sign that.

- All right, all right, all right.

It's exciting, given what I thought was going to happen.

I've been waiting all day for you, bro.

Now, what to do with these signatures?

- All right, keep the fight up.

- There must be a way that I can share the support and not have to stand on a street corner wrapped in a sandwich board sign.

Wow.

Can I have that?

But where to go?

And whom to see?

[light orchestral music] ♪ ♪ A brief history lesson about Black History Month... Black History Month was started as a week in 1926 by the historian and author Carter G. Woodson.

The son of slaves, Woodson would become known as the father of Black history.

He created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

I'm surprised to find out that the organization still exists, headquartered in Washington, D.C.

If there's anywhere I should take the petition, it's to the founders of Black History Month.

So I email the organization.

Vice President Daryl Scott responds, and let's just say he's not into the petition ending Black History Month or meeting with me.

"Stop playing postmodernist identity games."

Tell you the truth, I'm not sure what a postmodernist identity game is.

- Afro-Eurasian.

- Afro-Caribbean.

- Black.

[laughs] None of that "Negro" talk.

Black.

[funky music] I know Dr. Scott will be at the annual ASALH Black History Month luncheon in Washington, D.C.

So I head down I-95 South to crash the party.

♪ ♪ As I scan the crowd looking for Dr. Scott, I couldn't help but to have one continuous thought... How long before they figure out I don't have a ticket?

[indistinct chatter] [indistinct conversation] - I got to go to my car to get something.

You want to walk with me now?

- Because you cut me off.

- [laughs] - You said you didn't want to talk.

- So that's the kind of journalism you're doing?

That's what I'm talking about.

- No, I'm not trying to ambush you at all.

At all.

Can we get you sometime?

- Okay, yeah, I'll talk to you.

I'll talk to you.

- I would really appreciate it.

- You were really serious about this chili dog.

- Yeah.

- [laughs] both: Thank you.

- As you know, I'm making this film and on this kind of journey to end Black History Month.

- To end Black History Month.

- Yeah.

- He's trying to be provocative.

That's all you're trying to do.

Go ahead.

- What's wrong with ending Black History Month?

- You would be ending the longest running, most stable celebration of American history.

And why would you want to do that?

- It was created.

It was a week.

It was totally noble, absolutely the right thing to do, needed to be done.

It was expanded to a month.

Fantastic.

That was almost 40 years ago.

Is that it?

Does it just stop at a month?

- If every group put what they thought was important into the holiday, the truth of the matter is, it's an impossible task.

And the fact that Black people are represented to the extent that they are is a result of a long struggle.

There's politics involved in everything, and you seem oblivious to that question.

- Actually, actually-- - Excuse me.

I'm going to be rigorous with you.

You raised a question.

You're trying to bring an end to an institution.

If I were a person who didn't like Black history, I'd agree with you because I can end American kids having to hear about Black history every year.

There's a kind of a naivete about this question.

Be careful what you're asking for.

[indistinct chatter] [light music] ♪ ♪ - There's a danger to ending Black History Month, a danger I hadn't considered.

Because of this, I didn't bring up the petition with Dr. Scott nor all the people who had signed it.

♪ ♪ Here at Woodson's former home, I'm left to wonder if an America without Black History Month is an America without Black history.

I can only imagine what Woodson would think about ending Black History Month.

- What the hell are you doin'?

♪ ♪ - On my way back to New York, I decide to stop by Delaware and see my mother as she prepares for her own Black History Month.

It's been a while since I first mentioned all this to her and my father.

I wonder if she still feels the same way.

- Well, I think I could just spank you for that, but you're just too old.

And I was always so proud-- - I'm proud.

What do you mean, proud?

What?

- Well, I think you're proud in a different way.

I think your generation... has integrated more.

And they're more in the mainstream with everything.

We weren't, so Black history saved our lives.

- My mother clearly still believes in the importance and effectiveness of Black History Month.

[percussive music playing] She tells me this year, with my aunt's help, she's putting on a Black History Month play.

♪ ♪ - Eleanor has always been into the arts.

It's always been her thing.

She wanted to do it.

She said, "Veronica, help me."

And, of course, Veronica's the little... [laughs] Patsy.

[laughter] So I'm going along with whatever she want to do... 'cause she wants to do it.

I don't give a hoot.

[laughter] My idea of a Black history is just go home and watch TV.

[laughter] - What concerned me was, last year, in honor of Black History Month, they had a play about teenage pregnancy.

And that was the play.

And I thought, "Oh, my goodness."

- A play about teen pregnancy makes my mother uneasy about Black History Month, the same as it does me.

- And then you'll come around here, and we're going-- - Her solution is to fix it with a better Black History Month play.

But why does a historical play have to wait until February?

Will no one come if it's in July?

What does it mean that we immediately put ourselves in this February box?

Is February the only time that Black culture, history, an d people can coexist?

Or are there other factors at work?

- So what do you say to somebody that says maybe this is just a way to make a little money?

- I don't see anything wrong with us making some money.

I mean, we are enterprising people.

But that certainly, certainly isn't the reason why I did it.

I... [laughter] - There is money to be made during Black History Month.

That's part of my problem.

- Scene one, take one.

- Cut.

- Are you a Black actor?

You are definitely going to get paid this month.

Stage or film, yo ur role is being cast.

- Tea, sir?

- Fashion designer?

Black History Month fashion show.

- Honey, I'm not sure that I believe that walk.

- Movies.

Admit it, you're probably watching this one during Black History Month.

Are you hungry?

Honor Black History Month by buying collard greens, corn bread, or hot sauce... on sale.

[cash register bell dinging] And don't forget the chicken.

Do you need to walk?

Step out this February in Black History Month sneakers.

I am.

And, yes, there is a Nike Black History Month sneaker.

Hey, want to draw African American consumers to your company or brand?

This is the month to tell the world you care about Black people.

- "Black History leading to a healthier tomorrow.

"It's the same ideals you turn to when it comes to yo ur GI health."

Uh... What the [bleep]?

♪ ♪ - There seems to be a bunch of ads targeted towards African Americans in January and February.

- These are the guys that really do a lot of the traditional print work, magazine work.

- Is this just my imagination?

- She's done some wonderful, famous commercials, too.

So she's hot.

- Oh, okay.

- She's hot.

- In order to find out, I head to Burrell Communications, the largest Black-owned ad agency in the country.

- In terms of ad, there's definitely a spike, just like you see a lot of snow commercials during Christmas, you know what I mean?

It's an opportunity to celebrate culture, African American culture and accomplishments.

Now, that's what I see Black history season is, you know?

- Did he say "B lack history season"?

- Black History Month is not about selling.

It's about, we've been selling to you, and we sell to you all the time, but right now we just want to talk and pause and just respect that and talk about what we can do for the community.

So there's a conversation shift.

- I mean, they are selling something, I mean, at the end of the day.

- Yeah, you know what?

You know we are in business to make money.

I mean, every company, every person-- the local barber shop down the street is not cutting your hair for free.

You know what I mean?

The brother has to pay rent.

Right?

It's activating different parts of a relationship, not just one.

I think if you say it's about sales, then you're only looking at one part of the relationship.

- I don't know what to make of these branded expressions of honor.

Are they harmless, a result of a society where everything is for sale?

Or is it an insult to what Black History Month is supposed to be?

- A Dutch beer is a natural complement to celebrating African American achievement.

After all, without the help of Dutch merchant ships, there wouldn't even be African Americans.

[light music] - I realize now that my desire to end Black History Month is less about history itself.

♪ ♪ It's about escaping th e confines of February as Black people month... about claiming a rightfully earned American identity far too expansive to be associated with a single month or an advertising season.

♪ ♪ But my opinion is just not enough.

I have to prove that Black History Month is detrimental both to Black folks and Americans in general.

♪ ♪ Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts-- home of some of the brightest minds in the world.

It's also here that Carter G. Woodson earned his PhD in history.

Seems a fitting place to try to figure out how to prove Black History Month is detrimental.

For help, I go to see social psychologist Dr. James Sidanius, creator of social dominance theory.

- Most of the time, the history taught is the history of the dominant group.

This is one reason for the desire to establish Black History Month as a kind of counternarrative to this tendency for American history only to be thought of as the history of Europeans.

To have Black History Month is sort of exceptionalizing African Americans and sort of almost treating them with a certain amount of condescension, to say, "Okay, we'll gratify your need "to have your story told one month of the year, "you African American people.

"And then when that's over, we'll get back "to the serious work of telling the American story, in which you have a very small role."

In that sense, it's not a positive thing to have it.

Right?

- Right.

If Black History Month perpetuates the idea of a European-dominated American historical narrative, how best can I prove this?

- If you wanted to do a classical experiment, where you've got the same condition-- one we call the experimental condition, the other th e control condition-- and the only thing that's varied is the notion that one story is advertised as part of Black History Month and the other story is advertised as part of just an American history lesson, but the contents are in fact the same.

- The experiment was simple.

I used Black history trading cards with a picture of a historical figure on front, a story about th at person on the back.

I asked people to pick a card at random, read the story, and take a 20-question survey designed to assess their value of this history.

So I hit the road again, conducting survey after survey.

To help gauge their responses, for half the participants, I said that this was a Black History Month survey.

For the other half, I simply said this was an American history survey.

Hey, when you guys get done, if you'd like to take a five-minute history survey... ♪ ♪ Read the back of it.

- Uh-huh.

- Then you fill out the rest of the survey.

And it's just the bottom of this page and then the next one.

At the end, I'll compare the survey results with Dr. Sidanius to make a final determination.

♪ ♪ I'm confident that finally I' ll have proof Black History Month is detrimental.

♪ ♪ I return to Cambridge to get the results of the experiment from Dr. Sidanius and PhD student Arnold Ho.

- So, as you can see from this first graph, that self-esteem wa s not affected by the experimental manipulation for either Blacks or whites.

There was also no change in the perception of how important Black history is, depending on the experimental manipulation.

- The evidence seems to suggest that the celebration of Black History Month neither has a deleterious effect on anybody, neither does it do any good.

It doesn't seem to have any positive effect either so far.

- Is it safe to say that I spent all this time doing this experiment and it turns out to be a monumental waste of time?

- I don't think so.

I mean, it seemed like a reasonable hypothesis.

It's good to know what the truth would be.

That is to say, Black History Month does not seem to have the kind of ego-boosting effect that we thought it did.

- If I can't prove anything is wrong with Black History Month, then how can I even entertain the idea of ending it?

More surprising than Black History Month not being detrimental is that it had no positive effects on people's self-esteem or their value perception of the history.

Is Black History Month just a nonissue all around?

In my hotel room, my producer catches me mulling over this dilemma.

- So let me just ask you, at this point in the film, what has happened?

- I don't know.

I just kind of feel like, you know... [sighs] You know, it's tough, especially... because I took such a extreme stance.

[sighs] Of course I, you know, would support the celebration of my people at a designated time.

Other people have celebrations of their culture and history.

What's the matter with that?

- So then what's your movie about?

- I discovered, somewhere along the line, this is an issue that I think-- it's not really about Black History Month.

It's really about something deeper.

I just wish I knew what that something deeper was.

I wake up to a new thought.

The impact of any history month can't be measured in an experiment, at least not one done by a dime-store psychologist.

And by dime-store ps ychologist, I mean me.

[upbeat fiddle music] ♪ ♪ In order to understand what it means to have a Black History Month, I must look outside Black History Month... ♪ ♪ Way outside.

♪ ♪ There must be benefits to having a history month... - For the honor of Virginia.

- As those that don't have one fight to create it.

- America has been dumbed down in history, which is one of the reasons why we're promoting Confederate History Month in Virginia.

♪ ♪ - In Lexington, Virginia, I visit the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

all: Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy... - After the war, there was a major move to squash Confederate history.

And the generations today want to see that history brought back to its prominence.

[cannon fires] - Company... - Company... - Halt.

- Halt.

- There are 10 billion Confederate flags.

You're in a Confederate uniform.

- Right, right.

And, you know, when I think of the Confederacy, I think of slavery.

- Sure.

Slavery is a dead issue.

It was there.

Does that make it right?

No.

I'll be the first one to tell you.

I personally wouldn't want to be a slave.

And I think that was wrong, but it was a different time, and that was the economic st ructure at that time.

- People see my lapel pin, instantly, they look at that flag and think, "Oh, this guy must be a racist."

You know, he's probably some arm of the Ku Klux Klan."

That's a soldier's flag.

It has nothing to do with racism.

[militaristic drum cadence] ♪ ♪ - Dearest loved one, I find myself caught behind enemy lines.

Very uncomfortable.

So, just so I'm clear, a young Black male like myself should not fear the rise of Confederate history.

- Oh, no.

- Or the rise of a Confederate History Month?

- I can't see any reason why.

- The push for a Confederate History Month makes me understand one thing more than all... history is about power, the power to control the story, even if for a brief period of time.

And a history month is a way to do that.

In creating Confederate History Month, the story of slavery can become simply about economic structure an d be easily forgotten.

The Confederate flag is a relic of valiant soldiers and nothing more.

And a rogue government that existed for a few years can somehow be confused wi th the South.

[light music] ♪ ♪ With new light shed on my vision of history months, I seek now to reimmerse myself in all things Black History Month.

So I journey further into the South to Atlanta, Georgia, to spend the last week of February in a so-called chocolate city.

Is Black History Month necessary?

- Most definitely.

Most definitely, because if you're coming from a predominantly white institution or if you're just coming from a regular public school, you don't learn anything about it until that month.

And then they'll put all this emphasis on it, and then they'll just stop talking about it on February 28th.

- There are so many influential figures that really changed the course of our nation, and that should be showcased th e entire year.

It is the sacrifice of these people that has allowed all of us some of the freedoms that we have today.

And it's the foundation of our country, and that is the importance of telling everyone's story.

- I don't care if nobody say it's tired, it's boring, you should move on, it should always be acknowledged.

- I find Atlanta to be bursting with the celebration of Black history.

♪ ♪ - It was 10,000 people in Atlanta prior to the war.

In 1867, it was 20,000.

The difference was, behind Sherman's army of 70,000, there was 4,000 freedmens.

They were left in Atlanta, and that's why you have Auburn area, where Afro-Americans developed.

♪ ♪ - Where did the name Jim Crow come from?

- A 19th-century minstrel show.

- Correct.

- The Sankofa African American History Challenge is a relatively diverse group.

- Who was the first African American to lead the Democratic National Committee?

- Ron Brown.

- Correct.

- When we learn more about African American history, we learn more about the sense of place that we all share as it relates to the very dynamic and evolving, currently unfolding history of the United States and of African Americans within the United States.

- Miss Collins, will you come back?

- I'ma come back.

- So what the students tell us is, they don't get a lot of African American history in their schools.

- I didn't even know half of these people existed until this competition.

So I learned a lot.

- Recently, there was a mother who was very upset, because some material was being used in the classroom that framed slavery as people that were brought over to help pick cotton, instead of talking about the horrors of slavery.

- The one sentence that was in your daughter's textbook was what, again?

- Black people were brought from Africa and other continents to help pick cotton and other crops.

The results of learning the way the book put our history into perspective caused her to feel very bad about herself and about her ancestors.

And so we would literally sit with this book and read-- it was about 68 pages-- read a page at a time.

And every time we'd finish a page, I'd have a caveat.

Now, I know they said this, but please remember... And that's difficult when you have someone-- or a child of that age--because when you have a textbook that's telling you something, that's what's right, not what Mommy said.

♪ ♪ - If textbooks fall short, I wonder how Black history is experienced in Atlanta's public schools.

♪ ♪ So I head to see Jo anna Maddox... - My name is Rosa Parks.

- One of Atlanta's premier storytellers.

- I started out just going to my sons' schools to help out.

I had made up some stories.

And the kids had started calling me a storyteller.

When I would walk down the halls, they'd say, "I know you.

You're the storyteller."

And I was like, okay, yes, I'm the storyteller, you know.

They were calling me the storyteller before I considered myself a storyteller.

And then when I was there during February, I didn't see very much going on.

I am so happy to be here with you today to share with you the story of Miss Harriet Tubman.

Some schools, because we have Black History Month, it's almost like it 's mandatory.

And I think once that's taken away, that we don't have to do anything now... then they won't.

- And my mama pleaded with the master, "Oh, please, master, don't sell my child."

She says she's snatched away fr om her mother at six years old, then the little six-year-old is thinking, "I'm six years old."

So now they're really seeing the struggle.

They are seeing how hard it was for Harriet.

Children need to know, this is your history.

This is your history.

- ♪ Sometimes I feel... ♪ - Where textbooks fail, Black History Month fills a void.

- [continues singing indistinctly] - So what does it mean to have a Black History Month?

It means to be counted, to be recognized.

It's time carved out where the stories of Black folks live.

And in the telling of that story, there is the promise of existence... the promise of enduring survival.

And for a people whose human worth and very right to exist has been questioned... this is an empowering action... even if it is the same four people.

♪ ♪ Beneath the cultural an d social celebration, history months are about something deeper.

♪ ♪ I just can't shake the notion that Woodson wo uld have wanted more, that the stories of Africans in America deserve more than a month.

♪ ♪ Seeking answers about Woodson, I head over to Emory University, where his personal library and archive of his writings are held.

I'm seeking to understand Black History Month as it exists today.

And I don't think I can do that without having a better understanding of Woodson, his works, what he read, what his motivations were.

- When he was studying at Berea, when he was studying at Chicago and Harvard, what he found was th ere was no information about the stories that he heard about Black history, about slavery.

Those stories had been ex cluded from the texts that he was reading ab out American history.

- He saw that the opportunities for telling what he understood to be a fair and honest and true perspective on the role of Blacks in American society, that would have to be researched, written, published, distributed by African Americans.

And the "Journal of Negro History," which began in 1916, became the most important scholarly journal for African American history and culture.

- He was trying to educate not only peoples of African de scent about themselves but those th at would dominate them and see them as less than.

- Woodson was a giant.

And the history he produced was not simply about facts, figures, or trivia.

It was about introducing a world to stories th at were either lost... hidden... or simply ignored.

- There is a reason why he's called the father of Negro history.

- Yeah.

[laughter] - It's out of this scholarship that Negro History Week is born.

I've read that Woodson hoped that one day his own creation-- Negro History Week, Black History Month-- would no longer be necessary, that it wouldn't exist.

Is that true?

- He would want this particular portion of American history to be absorbed by everyone.

The win isn't in continuing to have it and continuing to develop programs.

I think the win is when people acknowledge it as being significant, when people start to respond to the challenges that you've laid in front of them, to recognize the people who have been invisible.

- Doing African American history is not-- it's not as though I'm doing somebody else's history.

This is my history also.

It's this interaction of white and Black over 400 years.

This is who we are as a nation.

- Here amongst Woodson and his body of work, it hits me.

Having a history month is a way to be recognized.

To not need a history month to accomplish this, that's a representation of true equality.

Woodson recognized this.

And now so do I.

This is the something deeper I' ve been searching for.

This journey isn't about Black History Month at all.

It's about the nature of power and equality.

It's a deeper problem of which history months are a mere symptom.

So what would it mean not to have a Black History Month?

Not to need it?

Is it just an idealistic dream, or is something possible?

♪ ♪ I meet a man in Philadelphia who might have an answer.

- I am not an advocate of Black History Month... week, month, six months, or year.

- In 1967, Walt Palmer and others led a massive student walk-out to protest the lack of ethnic studies inclusion in Philadelphia's schools.

- We picked 10:00, November 17, 1967.

And at that time, the student government and the outside government and the gangs would walk out of every school in the city of Philadelphia.

That was the largest student uprising in the history of America.

It was an unbelievable day for them, a sense of real power and unity.

And they start attacking them.

The police commissioner, Rizzo, was overheard saying, "Get them.

Ge t their Black asses."

And the children were panicking.

And I said, "Fight.

Fight 'em, fight 'em.

Fight back."

- Out of that protest, you have the school officials, community leaders, and politicians meet.

They told the district, it is time for you to include Black studies in the curriculum.

The curriculum books were printed up, but they never got to the schools.

- There are politics involved in the teaching of history.

Deciding what history gets taught, how much, and from whose perspective is a complex battle that wages in school districts across the country.

In Philadelphia, that battle waged for nearly 40 years.

It came to a head in 2005 in a Philadelphia church during Black History Month.

- I was sitting in service.

Quite literally, you know, this outline of this resolution, you know, kind came to me.

Here we are, another year where we're just going to try to cram everything into one month.

And that's so inadequate.

It's so wrong.

It's so disrespectful.

And it's kind of like, well, what are you going to do about it?

- When the S.R.C.

asked me, they said, "How can we ensure that this is done?"

The only thing I could come up with was, "Make it a graduation requirement.

"That way, you don't ever have to worry about it not being taught."

- In 2005, the Philadelphia public schools became the only district in the country with a mandatory Af rican American history graduation requirement.

- 1944--a time of war and struggle overseas.

But within America... - I really didn't want to take it at first.

I was like, "Why do I have to take that?"

I want to take, like, computers like we were supposed to."

But you find out so many different things that they don't put in the American history ones, but they put in the African American history textbook.

- To spend a whole year looking at the entire African American experience and not having slavery just pop up as a subject of study when you get to the Civil War unit but having slavery start by looking at what was going on in Africa, looking at people ripped out of their homeland, it just gives them such a richer appreciation.

So, when people say, "Well, why shouldn't there be "an Asian history class requirement?

"Why shouldn't there be "a Latin history class requirement?

"Why shouldn't there be a Jewish history class required?

What makes African Americans special?"

Well, they were enslaved.

This country was built on the free labor of people brought here against their will.

And, to me, that makes the African American experience unique and worthy of a distinct focus of study.

- Separating African American history as, like, one class, I think it just draws a bigger line between, like, this history, and then it's like, "Oh, well, now I have to learn about Black people and then just, like, keep going."

And I think that if we just, like, gradually put it into every class, now it's not "African American history."

It's just history, and it has both sides of the story.

- It's not a perfect solution, but making African American history mandatory sends a powerful message.

We, the people, believe this is important, so important that one cannot graduate from high school without learning it.

What about you?

Sign my petition?

- If that were to end, what would you put in place of that?

- I think you have to create a national history standard that essentially... ensures the inclusion of the stories of African Americans throughout history, K through 12, in every district in every state in America.

I feel that I have found ev idence of a next step, a step beyond Black History Month.

It's not about ending Black History Month.

It's about transcending it.

[light music] ♪ ♪ As February ends, I head home to see my mother's play, only to discover it's been delayed.

- We really felt that this would be an opportunity to take Black history out of the box.

- In April, the curtain opens on a Black history play to a full house.

- I started thinking about it a different way.

- After you heard what I was doing?

- Yes, I started thinking about it a different way.

I honestly feel that you're after something bigger.

If our history is taken seriously and blended in with the American history as one, then the masses begin to understand we're all the same.

♪ ♪ I'm trusting your generation to make sure we 're defined properly.

♪ ♪ - Back in New York, it's time to retire the petition and the sandwich board.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ It's the dawn of a new man.

♪ ♪ Don't get me wrong-- I still think it should end, because we can create an American narrative that is inclusive, though it may be imperfect.

We can create an America wh ere white and European is not the default story.

I've been comfortable in my jeans and Black History Month sneakers.

But for the work required to create this kind of change, I'm going to have to put on a suit.

[funky music] ♪ ♪ It's a new February, and I'm back in D.C. My old foe, Daryl Scott, invites me to join the ASALH, Woodson's organization, and attend this year's Black History Month luncheon.

♪ ♪ So this year, I have a ticket.

- The beauty of Black History Month, the beauty of public celebrations of Black history, is that they bring pe ople together who have an interest.

What is conveyed is some level of knowledge about the African American past and the American past in general.

What is the comparable celebration of some facet of American history?

There is none.

- Last year he told me all that I was doing wrong.

So I'm curious to understand why Daryl Scott invited me.

- I asked you to join because we wanted to institutionalize the infidel.

[laughter] Because you care, because you care about Black history.

And there's nothing like commitment and energy.

We believe in the 365 mission as well.

So we're not opposed to what you're doing.

But it doesn't have to be an either-or proposition.

Change happens.

Change happens when people want change to happen.

The young radical elements during the '60s, they wanted a month.

And they got a month.

And they took us dragging into a month.

And today one of the people who promoted the idea of a month-long celebration instead of a week-long celebration is Lerone Bennett, and he is our speaker today.

So sometimes those infidels win.

[laughs] Okay?

They succeed, and that's good, too.

So I'm on your side.

I want you to succeed in making it 365 days a year, okay?

But in the meantime, the old guard will hold this position.

[laughter] [gentle music] ♪ ♪ - This is our America.

This American story is ours, all of ours.

Our multicultural, multiethnic tapestry is a truth of our existence, and that truth must be represented in our collective history.

The story of history in forms us who we were.

How we tell that story conveys who we are.

♪ ♪ ♪♪