... And for as long as it takes.

The March 3 [1961 "Outlook" article "A Failing Grade on Race" by Patrick Welsh, subtitled "Tense and Divided, My Students Are Rethinking the Whole Idea of Black History Month," suggested that Black History Month should be eliminated as an anachronistic relic. Few conclusions could be more wrong. The nation began celebrating black history in 1926, when Carter Godwin Woodson, the renowned educator, historian and former Howard University dean, initiated the observance of Negro History Week. Woodson is known as the "Father of Negro History in the United States" for his work in founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1915 and the Journal of Negro History in 1916, among other activities. He chose the week in February--embracing the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln, Feb. 12, and the African American leader Frederick Douglass, Feb. 14--to bring the achievements of African Americans to the attention of the public. In 1972 the ASNLH changed the name of Negro History Week to Afro-American History Week, and in 1976, our nation began its first month-long celebration of Black History Month.

Woodson created Negro History Week because he recognized that accurate information about the African American contribution to the discovery, pioneering and development of the United States had not been adequately presented in the textbooks, media and films of that time. He believed that understanding and appreciation of the African American experience would not only enrich our national life but would remind all Americans of their ethnic roots and the uniqueness of the great American experience, nurturing mutual respect for differing traditions and backgrounds.

It was Woodson's hope and intention that one day African American History would be so woven into the fabric of the nation's historical curriculum that we would no longer need to set aside a special time for its recognition as a part of the American experience. In fact, in 1929, Woodson believed that "the possibility of putting Negro history in the curriculum (was) not a far distant project."

Unfortunately, to this date, the seamless incorporation of African American history into the textbooks, media and overall school curriculum, which he envisioned, has not occurred.

Welsh's story mentions the understandable ennui of his T. C. Williams students with respect to endlessly repetitious programs consisting of school-wide assemblies, poems read over the PA system and pictures of a few famous figures posted on bulletin boards. The described activities, and their impact on the attitudes of the T. C. Williams students, are results Woodson worked earnestly to avoid.

In fostering the study of black history, he prescribed the development of an enjoyable and creative curriculum focusing on the serious contributions of African Americans to the nation, rather than a perpetual recapitulation of the story of slavery and emancipation.

Indeed, in an effort to avoid "regurgitation of the same pantheon of black heroes," as one student was heard to complain, each year the ASALH selects a theme for the Black History Month celebration and assembles materials for distribution to schools and church organizations. Perhaps T .C. Williams students could benefit from those materials.

I regret to conclude that Black History Month is not "out of place in the [19]90s." I only wish it were. And I am sure Woodson would have agreed.

J. Leon Peace, Jr., Attorney (Washington, D.C.) reprinted from The Washington Post March 27, 1996: A21) with permission of author