Thanks for sharing a great story joj!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month
The opinion below is not mine, I am happy with the way things are but I was going to make a joke and ask "when is white history month?" (-: so I can see the points.
Black History Month often sparks an annual debate about the continued usefulness and fairness of a designated month dedicated to the history of one race. Criticisms include questions over whether it is appropriate to confine the celebration of black history to one month, as opposed to integration of black history into the mainstream education the rest of the year. Another criticism is that contrary to the original inspiration for Black History Month, which was a desire to redress the manner in which American schools failed to represent black historical figures as anything other than slaves or colonial subjects, Black History Month reduces complex historical figures to overly simplified objects of hero worship. Other critics refer to the celebration as racist.[20]
Actor and director Morgan Freeman and actress Stacey Dash have criticized the concept of declaring only one month as Black History Month,[21][22]. Freeman noted, "I don't want a Black history month. Black history is American history."[23]
JOJ
I imagine that story is not the only one "hidden" from us during our education through our younger years.
Such makes me feel Ive been bamboozoled.
Thanks John
John,
You raise an excellent point!
Be bamboozled no more!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smalls
Robert Smalls was born in 1839 to Lydia Polite, a woman enslaved by Henry McKee, who was most likely Smalls' father.[1] She gave birth to him in a cabin behind McKee's house, on 511 Prince Street in Beaufort, South Carolina.[2] He grew up in the city under the influence of the Lowcountry Gullah culture of his mother. His mother lived as a servant in the house but grew up in the fields. Robert was favored over other slaves, so his mother worried that he might grow up not understanding the plight of field slaves, and asked for him to be made to work in the fields and to witness whipping.[3]
When he was 12, at the request of his mother, Smalls' master sent him to Charleston to hire out as a laborer for one dollar a week, with the rest of the wage being paid to his master. The youth first worked in a hotel, then became a lamplighter on Charleston's streets. In his teen years, his love of the sea led him to find work on Charleston's docks and wharves. Smalls worked as a longshoreman, a rigger, a sail maker, and eventually worked his way up to become a wheelman, more or less a pilot, though slaves were not honored by that title. As a result, he was very knowledgeable about Charleston harbor.[4]
At age 17, Smalls married Hannah Jones, an enslaved hotel maid, in Charleston on December 24, 1856. She was five years his senior and already had two daughters. Their own first child, Elizabeth Lydia Smalls, was born in February 1858. Three years later they had a son, Robert Jr., who later died aged two.[5] Robert aimed to pay for their freedom by purchasing them outright, but the price was steep, $800 (equivalent to $22,308 in 2018). He had managed to save up only $100. It could take decades for him to reach $800.[3]