Black History Month Begins in the Shadow of Memory and the Weight of Truth

It is a sad day. It is an unbelievable time. When I look to my left and my right and into the distance at the crowds around me, I do not see people looking at each other. I see people looking down. Fixated on their phones. Watching their lives unfold through screens while the ground beneath them quietly shifts or better yet stays the same.

I watch our communities disappear, voices diminished by redlining around our Country, and families forced to leave homes their grandparents fought to own. I watch the slow replacement of memory with profit. I have sat with workers who were so afraid of losing their jobs that they endured physical humiliation in a disease ridden body, just to remain employed and feed their families. I have seen people beg for living wages while elected officials approved policies that benefited developers and corporations first. I have seen public money vanish while investigations stall. I have seen laws enforced differently depending on who stands before them.

This is not imagination. This is governance.

And this is why Black History Month cannot be reduced to celebration alone. We must remain vigilant.

Black History Month exists because for all of American history, Black history was deliberately erased. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were founded because Black students were denied admission to white institutions. The Morrill Act of 1890 required states practicing segregation to establish separate land grant institutions for Black students. These schools became pillars of intellectual and professional advancement in a nation that once criminalized Black literacy itself. In the nineteenth century, enslaved people were forbidden from learning to read. Literacy was seen as a threat to the economic and social order. Education was liberation.

My grandmother lived during the era of school desegregation following the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and my father was born less than twenty years after that. That ruling declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional. But law did not immediately produce justice. Children were threatened. Families were attacked. Federal troops were required to escort Black students into classrooms while whites stood by threatening, spitting on, and beating our babies for wanting to create a better future by simply learning.

My great grandmother lived during a lifetime where people were born enslaved. Slavery lasted centuries while our community still endures legal segregation on the back burner. The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964, less than 70 years ago. The Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968, just a few years before my father was born. King's mother Alberta Williams King was assassinated in 1974 while playing the organ in church. King's brother was assassinated as well. Malcom X assassinated! This was after my parents were born. And today..... thousands more. Children missing. Stories discredited. Voices silenced. These are not distant events. They live in our families and closer to our past than what is believed.

Coretta Scott King spent years advocating for the creation of a federal holiday to honor her husband. That holiday was not signed into law until 1983, about fifteen years before I was born, and the government already moves to erase this history from our schools not even fifty years later.

Violence was not random. It was systemic. It still is.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted surveillance on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr under the COINTELPRO program. They monitored his movements, wiretapped his communications, and attempted to discredit him. The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 to monitor police conduct and provide community services like free breakfast programs, was also targeted by federal law enforcement and labeled as a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan who were involved with racist murders of innocent men, women and children, began in the 1800's, through sheriff's who were once slave catchers, whose legacy lives on today. The Ku Klux Klan like the Proud Boys operates openly, in our governments, without any legal consequence.

History did not move forward automatically. It was forced forward by sacrifice.

Today, the threats don't look much different and remain dangerous. They are just not written plainly in laws or signs in restaurants and on top of water fountains.

Digital platforms allow misinformation to spread faster than truth. Artificial intelligence now enables the creation of realistic videos that never happened. These tools can reinforce old stereotypes by manufacturing false images that portray Black individuals as criminals or threats. This continues a long tradition of visual propaganda used to justify unequal treatment while legislation is opposed to teaching history, patterns, and truth.

When leaders or influential figures amplify racist rhetoric, meet publicly with extremists, or fail to condemn hatred clearly, it legitimizes racism. When legislators and decison makers are not met with accountability, it supports chaos, inequity, and an abuse of power. This does not remain abstract. It shapes policy. It shapes budget. It shapes policing. It shapes housing. It shapes opportunity. It shapes our social and economic stance.

Black History Month is not just about remembering triumph. It is about recognizing unfinished work.

It is about understanding that economic displacement, educational inequity, and unequal justice did not appear by accident. They are the result of policy choices and policy choices can be changed.

The Constitution promises equal protection under the law. It promises due process. It promises liberty. But promises require enforcement. They require participation. They require vigilance.

The greatest danger today is not only injustice. It is indifference. We watch. We post. We scroll. But we do not always act. Black History Month is not only a time to honor the past. It is a time to decide the future. My grandmother survived desegregation. Her grandmother lived in the shadow of slavery. My family thrives in a government that was built against them, still decides to participate in injustice, and has no piece of mind for any type of affirmative action. Like "No Child Left Behind", the government has continued to leave behind many of the voices of people who they are obligated to represent.

The difference now is.... we can truly make a change through policy! We are now part of the System. Now it is our turn to make things right, use our voices, and hold illegality accountable. We must protect truth. We must protect community. We must protect each other. Because history is not something behind us; It is something we are still writing.

Happy Black History!!!