In his book, Come Hell or High Water, Michael
Eric Dyson recounts how hundreds of thousands of people were left behind in the
Gulf Coast region to experience the after
math of Hurricane Katrina. Those left behind to suffer the destruction,
disease, and death were predominately the black poor. These people had no way
out of the city before the storm hit, and received inadequate relief after the
destruction was done. It is no secret that the people who were mainly affected
by the aftermath of Katrina were poor people of color. These people also tended
to be the largest group with the smallest voice in political matters. Is this
mere coincidence or part of an intricate hierarchy of oppression? During this

In September of 1895, Booker T. Washington took a radical
step and addressed a predominately white audience at the Cotton
States and International Exposition in
Atlanta. During
this time racial tensions in the South were still very high, and many people
did not think Atlanta
was ready for such an event. However, those Southerners in charge of the event
wanted to impress the Northerners in attendance with Washington's address, using it as evidence
of racial progress in the South. Throughout the speech, Washington spoke about Black people in a
matter that today many would call "accommodationist" or "assimilationist." He
spoke to the white people at the exposition in a way that communicated they

(posted originally at myleftwing.com)

Black History Month was created to fix a blind spot in our appreciation of history. Other blind spots remain, however, one of which becomes especially glaring during Black History Month.

Barbara Johns was among the most important and dramatic figures of the American Civil Rights Movement, yet hardly anyone has heard of her. While teaching social science in an Oakland high school, I took out a five-dollar bill and promised it to the first student who could tell me who Ms. Johns was. More than 90 students, mostly black, tried their best. At the end of the day, I still had the only five-dollar bill I had bothered to bring. Every classroom there bore posters of "black heroes," from Malcolm X to Condi Rice, but Barbara Johns was forgotten.