February is ‘Black History Month’ in the United States. Over the last 10-12 years, whether it was the rise of profiling and arresting/assaulting of black people by the police (especially black men) or the near-daily occurrence of someone having a racial “slip of the tongue” in the media or on social media (starting with the election of Barack Obama as U.S. President, when a lot of people crawled out from under the baseboards to make their opinions known about the “Kenyan Muslim terrorist”), I’ve felt the need to get the word out more about the Black Community, whether it’s through promotion on Facebook, helping to de-stigmatize the West End of Louisville (the predominately-Black area of the city), or the sharing of information during BHM.
So, like previous years on Facebook, I’m going to take you on a brief, month-long tour of the ‘History’ of the Black Community, with facts and either a book link, song link, movie info and history, video game info and history, or mix of the 4, as an accompaniment. Hope you enjoy it… and maybe learn something new!
Song: “Dawn of the Dreads” by Arrested Development
A good way to start this off is with one of my favorite songs, growing up, from the Afro-centric Hip Hop ‘Arrested Development’.
#1: Dr. Daniel H. Williams – Performed the first American, successful open-heart surgery. LINK, via the African American Registry.
The Nexus 