Back in high school, one of my English teachers had posters of many of the famous writers. Hemingway, Dickens, and more ringing the upper walls of the room. To my recollection, most of them were men and white. They all shared a common style, so I’m sure that’s how the set was sold. It was the late eighties and the world was not perfect.
What we know now is there’s a lot of people who got left out of history, not just writers. In February, friends of mine have posted up links and names for Black History Month. I haven’t read them all, but here they are, plus a few more I knew about. I’ve got some reading to do.
Barbara Hillary
Bob Marley
Colin Kapernick
Fredi Washington
Gerald Lawson
Dr. Hadiyah- Nicole Green
Harry T. Moore
Reverend Dr. Henry Highland Garnet
James Zwerg
Sgt. 1st Class Janina Simmons
Julian F. Abele
Kalief Browder
Langston Hughes
Lonnie Johnson
Malcom X
Marie Van Brittan Brown
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner
Dr. Maya Angelou
Nina Simone
Octavia Butler
Polly Jackson
Robert Smalls
Sandra Bland
Sidney Poitier
Rev. William Washington Browne
Sarranounia Mangou
Toni Morrison
This list isn’t definitive or ranked (I sorted by first name). Some lives were cut tragically short. Each should be known as well as Hemingway and Thomas Jefferson. It’s hard to fit everybody’s poster on a classroom wall, but until everybody is at least represented, we’ll need months dedicated to raising our awareness of those left out.
Happy Black History Month.