The importance of history

Booker T. Washington was an American educator, author, orator and adviser to several presidents. Library of Congress

When people think about celebrating historical months, certain parts are only brought up on one month and not all year long. In our areas, they only see white history as very important and not all race and religion—which is extremely important within everyone’s development in life. Not everyone sees it like that, but the majority of the population does.

To really know ones from the past—you must first open your eyes and see past your inner box and then you can see what is around you. It is very racist for any area to think only their own skin color history is important and not anyone else’s. All history is important, not just one side.

All schools—K-12 and colleges should teach all history, no matter what anyone says. As a teacher, you have every right to teach history as you want. During the early ’90s and before, K-12 teachers taught history from around the world and how important it is to know and to keep it alive. Without this history, America and other countries around her would never know true art, beauty, how buildings and other land marks made it through the toughest weather and earthquakes. And yes, even wars—America and other states copied what other parts of the world has done—meaning, structures, food, cultures and the list goes on.

Even though Black History Month has passed, people can still take the time to read and really think about Black history around the world. For example, Booker T. Washington was a prominent African-American figure during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was born April 15, 1856 and died Nov. 14, 1914. In the course of his life, he not only survived being enslaved at a very young age during the Civil War, he also became a very famous author throughout our known history. He wrote a book on his life during the Civil War, describing his personal experiences.

During his time, if someone owned a planation, by law, they must own slaves or they themselves would have been beaten or killed. Even if they did not want too—to survive, they had to follow the rules.

Not everyone beat or killed the slaves they owned, most actually taught them to read, write and hid them when soldiers came looking. Most, not all, only see half of the glass and not the full portion.

As Booker got older and slavery was abolished, thanks to Abraham Lincoln—he not only become smarter, but he also gained a lot of strength, wanting everyone to know the truth. Booker is known for being a “American Educator, author, orator and adviser to several Presidents of the Unit States.”

In 1901, Booker wrote a novel called “Up from Slavery.” It is about his experience as a slave and it describes how he survived all those years as a child. He wrote “Atlanta Compromise” and “The Future of the American Nigro,” just to name a few of his books.

Readers can find his books at Barnes & Noble’s and on Amazon.  Booker T. Washington had gone a very long way and had much to share with everyone.

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