Black History Month was once a week until it was overfilled with too many achievements in and outside of February, thanks to Mr. Carter Woodson. Black History Month is a time where everyone should be celebrating achievements done by black people/African Americans. In this month, one should find importance in the role African Americans play in history to the present.

Outside of our textbooks it seems our achievements started from slavery, which is incorrect to the fullest. Our ancestors were kings, queens, educators, philosophers, griots and more before America rewrote our history. This is the knowledge I carry as a Black Student Union leader because with our original history we hold beliefs and skills that are overlooked like leadership, creativity, being spiritual, family-oriented, fashionable, intelligent, independent and more.

Obviously, the media has depicted the black person as something other than what was listed and has hyper-sexualized, demonized, mislabeled and degraded the community with these misconceptions. As a leader within Black Student Union, we are here to break those stereotypes and re-educate what has been misinterpreted and communicated. We are here to shed light on the truth on who we are as people and activists in the 21st century.

Through Black Student Union, we allow for our culture to strive in and out of campus to bridge the gap in diversity through events like potlucks, fashion shows, parties, etc. We pay tribute to historical figures in Black History Month by reintroducing the ideologies they have bestowed upon the newer generation.

We dream like Martin Luther King Jr. to come to a place where we come together and accept each other. We lead like Harriet Tubman by setting the example and not looking back because we know what’s behind us won’t benefit us. We must fight like Malcom in the face of resistance and for equality when all odds are against us.

The black community must think like Garvey when striving to change ideologies in a way that helps us grow as a community opposed to individually because we grow together and not separate in lifestyle. We must write like Maya Angelou something powerful yet settling that will shape our minds and tell our stories that makes us the kings and queens that we deserve to be seen as. We must build like Madam C.J. Walker to strive in our community for ingenuity that will inspire the next generation to be better than us.

The community must speak like Fredrick Douglas in order to communicate our ideas to people who aren’t aware of the struggle we come face to face with in an eloquent manner in which we could switch to our community as ebonics, which the superior race classify as slang that doesn’t align with the way they talk. The community must arm themselves with the education of W.E.B DuBois to understand their history, use it to change the present and plan for the future when it seems like there’s nothing more we can do, which isn’t true because there is always an unknown struggle we must combat or an invention needed to be created.

Finally, Black Student Union and the black community stand by the idea that we must believe like Thurgood Marshall because when the odds are against us, who do we have or who do we go to? It’s the belief and hope that we hold each other accountable for our success in striving in a nation that oppresses us. When February comes rolling around the corner, students should think about the love of empowerment to the African American community and acknowledge their achievements as a turning point that your textbook doesn’t mention.