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Every year I hope and pray that Black History Month will bring new discoveries to help us track and record our history.

But once again, I saw the same faces, read about the same events and places, leading people to believe that our history started in 1960.

We must stop being lazy and seek out the facts that were not included in history books.

Don’t get me wrong. What happened in the late ’50s and ’60s is important, and it puts America on notice never to forget. However, every February, when I hear so-called black leaders saying we should not forget those who paved the way for us, I wait on the flood gates to open with new revelations.

I am waiting to hear the contributions of Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson, James Baldwin, Thurgood Marshall, Irene Morgan, Booker T. Washington, A. Philip Randolph, Carter G. Woodson, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jennings Brown, Claude McKay, who are just a few of our early civil rights activists. No such luck.

As has been the case for many years, out came the same names, stories, pictures and claims.

In a conversation with a black Guilford County government official, I expressed concern about our children being taught half-truths about our history. I used Rosa Parks as an example. The reply? “It is not who was first, it is who and what sparked the movement.”

No wonder our kids have problems discovering and understanding our black history.

How can you call Rosa Parks the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement and never utter the names Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jennings Brown or Irene Morgan? It’s easy when you don’t know and don’t take the time to do your own research.

In 1864, Brown, a 24-year-old black schoolteacher, took action that lead to the desegregation of New York City’s primary form of public transportation.

In 1944, Morgan refused to give up her seat to a white female on a Greyhound bus bound for Baltimore from Virginia. After a brief physical confrontation with law officers, she was jailed for violating Virginia’s segregation law.

Thurgood Marshall, our first black Supreme Court Justice, argued Morgan’s case before the Supreme Court and won a landmark ruling that struck down state laws requiring segregation in situations involving interstate transportation.

Parks did a brave thing, and I applaud her, but Brown gets my vote for mother of the movement.

We buy into it and let the news media decide what is and isn’t important about our history. What do we learn? Nothing, because the same old stories are dressed up to sound like some new revelation.

Heaven forbid someone writes something about events and people before 1960. We are either easy to fool, or we just don’t care enough about our history to demand more.

Our school system is considering starting the teaching of U.S. history at 1877 — jumping over slavery and how the blood, sweat and tears of my people helped build this nation.

I wonder where they got this idea. Could it be our lack of attention about the importance of our early black history?

Our younger generation will never understand how we got to 1960 if you take away the when, where and how of slavery. We will be marching and singing, trying to change something we let happen.

We need to admit we don’t know, then start researching our early history.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We are always coming up with emphatic facts of history in our private experience and verifying them here. All history becomes subjective; in other words, there is no history, only biography.”

Based on what I have observed every January and February, this is our dilemma.

Enough of this “I” and “look at me” attitude. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are not as important as the history that got us to where we are today.

Although the accounts of the 1960s and forward are important and should be recorded, those who can’t step out of that era and incorporate other aspects of our history are denying what our ancestors did to uplift our race.

Our early ancestors deserve as much attention, if not more.

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain a child,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero. It’s time for us to grow up.
This year, I found many accomplishments by black people that will help our younger generation understand and be proud of their ancestors.

• 1776: James Hammon, first known black published author.
• 1773: Phyllis Wheatley, first known black woman to publish a book.
• 1778: 1st Rhode Island Regiment, first black U.S. military regiment.
• 1783: James Derham, first black person to formally practice medicine in the U.S. He didn’t hold an M.D. degree.
• 1821: Thomas L. Jennings, first black person to hold a patent.
• 1823: Alexander Twilight, first black person to receive a degree from an American college.
• 1827: Freedom’s Journal, first black person owned and operated newspaper in U.S.
• 1845: Macon Allen, first black person licensed to practice law in the U.S.
• 1847: Dr. David J. Peck, first black person to graduate from a U.S. medical school.
• 1849: Charles L. Reason, first black college professor, N.Y. Central College.
• 1853: William Wells Brown, first black person to write a novel.
• 1863: Wilberforce College, Ohio, first college owned and operated by black people.
• 1865: John Swett Rock: first black person admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1866: Cathay Williams, first black woman enlistee in the U.S. Army.

This is information that can help educate Americans about the black race before 1960. As long as we remain ignorant of our past, our country will never know the truth.

Maybe during the next year, we can learn some new facts to share with each other that will complement Black History Month. I can only pray for a miracle.

Glenn Chavis researches and writes about High Point’s black history. Contact him at Storytime40@aol.com.