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I have this wonderful site in which to discuss aspects of black education. There are so many ways in which to look at how black people are educated. My main goal is to explore topics that you may not have considered before. Specifically, I want to look at education not simply as a means for getting a job, but a means for developing your mind and increasing your quality of life. I do not mean this in terms of materialism or consumerism, but helping you to develop a stronger sense of who you are as a person. To do this we must re-Africanize our education. What does this mean?

Western education is based upon a system which has systematically edited Africa out of its history, beginning its origins with the Greeks. Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Philosophy unquestionably shows that the Greeks stole their knowledge from Africans. Black education is based upon Western education. This has been very damaging to our identity.

Restoring Africa to its proper place in history goes far beyond celebrating Black History Month by posting a few pictures and remembering a few names and dates. It gets personal and down right infuriating when you begin to understand how much of your identity was stolen from you. Million dollar homes and limousines become mere trinkets and trivialities when the extent of who you really are begins to dawn upon you.

But, we've got time and a whole lot of space.

Another issue that I would like to discuss is what was actually taught in segregated black schools and how these subjects were taught. We've concentrated our focus so heavily on the legalities and injustices of segregation that it seems we've literally thrown the baby out with the bath water. Yes! Our children are dying.

Let's get beyond the glitter and look at the gold. During segregation, black children were extremely well trained in the schools they attended. They could compete with anyone. The movie, The Great Debaters, which was based upon a true story, is an excellent example of what I mean. Here's another.

I know a woman from my hometown, Shreveport, who is in her late 80s. She was so thoroughly trained in high school that she still remembers her history lessons. I have a second cousin in this 70s who is the same way. This lady, let's just call her Mrs. Wells, told me that black people were so well organized that you had to take a class for just about everything. You couldn't be a civil rights demonstrator unless you took a class for it. You couldn't even join the PTA for your children until you had passed a class. There were formalities and procedures for just about everything. You know this from remnants that have survived in the black churches. And, families whose children had no "hometraining" were sorely looked upon.

My neighbor, who will be 90 this year, said that when she was about 13, she had to quit school to work for a white family, helping them as a domestic. She said that she could not believe how far behind in education the children were in the white family than where she was.

I spoke to my aunt, who was a teacher during the process of integration, and asked her why, during the Civil Rights Movement, did black people not simply ask for more money for education instead of integrating. She said that everything was so "forbidden" that they just wanted a chance to have what white people had.

Did black people throw away the "gold" of a better educational system for the "glittering dream" of better facilities and textbooks which is yet to come?

Before our elders die out, don't you think we need to discover what made their educational system work for them? For them, success was not just about money, but dignity, how you carried yourself and how you were helping to advance the race toward justice and equality.

Before I leave you, I want to recommend an article that I discovered on EzineArticles.com. HBCUs -- Relevant and Necessary in 21st Century America may give you some very good information on the history of higher black education.

Thanks for visiting.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), was a strong promoter of black education. He helped popularize the study and knowledge of Africans in the United States.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), is known as the father of African-American history. He helped popularize the study and knowledge of Africans in the United States.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Dr. Carter G. Woodson is the father of Black History Month. In 1912, he became the second African American to receive his doctorate from Harvard University. In 1926, he instituted Negro History Week during the week in February which falls on the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, the week was expanded to a month.

To celebrate Black History month, you should STUDY. Educate yourself. African-American history begins with the beginnings of humanity and civilization. Study the glory of Africans in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe millennia before Columbus. Study the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Study the defeats and triumphs of blacks as Americans.

Consider this.

Seventy-six years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, was asked to give a speech in honor of the occasion. Douglass said that he mourned because he saw the Fourth of July through the point of view of the slave. He quoted Psalm 137:1-6. This passage speaks of the horrors of being brought from your homeland only to be forced to amuse your captives who mock your memories. It also laments the cost of forgetting your homeland. Douglass said that for him to forget those who suffered in bondage, "to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make [him] a reproach before God and the world."

Perhaps this is the spirit with which Dr. Carter G. Woodson began what we now call Black History Month.