
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the official designation of February as Black History Month – just a drop in the bucket of time pooled from centuries of Black people making history in the United States, and of this country’s history being thrust upon us.
As we strive to place special emphasis upon all that Black people have endured, survived, and accomplished in America, we need to honor our recent history, which both shows how far we have come – and how far we have to go. Months of civil protest brought about by the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others; the echoes of countless past health care injustices heard in the disproportionate number of Black people succumbing to COVID-19; and the ugly spectacle of so many Confederate flags, hats and shirts defiling the Capitol during last month’s insurrection – this course of human events has underscored that not only must the struggle continue, but it must be memorialized at the same time.