Black History Month

In many places around the country, Black History Month will mean display boards, factoids, and cultural awareness activities. In so many places, schools and educators are so unsure of what to do with Black History Month that it becomes an awkward ritual that gets unpacked once a year and then put away again.

This year, let me suggest something different. Spend time, each day, remembering why there is a need for a Black History Month, and plan activities that will undo that need. Reading the 1619 Project is a good place to begin — understanding the economic and systemic oppression that has created a deeply bifurcated society. Then, plan a series of activities that highlight the need and work to bring forth change in the policy arena.

Depending on your community, the policy arena you can impact could be school discipline policy, homework policy, curriculum development and auditing policies, community housing policies, policing policies, or employment policies. Let’s make Black History Month something much more significant than a month of awareness — let’s make it a month of intense anti-racist activism.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?

— Martin Luther King Jr.