Constable: Ronald Reagan wanted Black History Month to teach historic struggle

Black History Month, which starts today, gives us the chance to binge-watch Sidney Poitier movies, take in August Wilson's powerful "Gem of the Ocean" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, explore "Black Creativity: Architecture" at the Museum of Science and Industry, or simply make time to read James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time."

The month also gives us the chance to learn about the triumphs of Black Americans such as astronaut Mae C. Jemison, early open-heart surgeon Daniel Hale Williams, traffic-signal inventor Garrett Morgan, and Lonnie Johnson, a rocket scientist who invented the Super Soaker squirt gun.

First recognized by President Gerald Ford during our nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, Black History Month isn't here merely as a feel-good time to celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans. It's supposed to explore what some people today call critical race theory, too.

Here's how President Ronald Reagan explained it in his 1986 proclamation recognizing February as Black History Month: "The foremost purpose of Black History Month is to make all Americans aware of this struggle for freedom and equal opportunity. It not only offers Black Americans an occasion to explore their heritage, but it also offers all Americans an occasion and opportunity to gain a fuller perspective of the contributions of Black Americans to our nation."

Reagan urged governors, schools, libraries and "all Americans" to observe the month with activities to "heighten awareness of Black history and to stimulate continuing inquiry into this rich vein of the American experience."

The idea of making all Americans aware of the struggle for freedom and equal opportunity and stimulating continuing inquiry may sound as if it was hatched by liberals touting critical race theory, but that was the opinion of a Republican president who remains a hero among conservatives.

The full history of Black History Month starts in Chicago in the summer of 1915, when University of Chicago graduate Carter G. Woodson, who also earned a doctoral degree from Harvard University, traveled from his home in Washington, D.C., to participate in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. Exhibits highlighting the progress of Black people since the destruction of slavery drew overflow crowds to the Chicago Coliseum during three weeks of celebrations.

Woodson, with the help of others, formed what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, published The Journal of Negro History in 1916, and in 1924 helped create Negro History and Literature Week. According to the history found on the group's asalh.org website, schools across the nation took part.

In the mid-1960s, a quarter-century before Black History Month got its federal proclamation, activist Frederick H. Hammurabi successfully urged Chicago to celebrate February as Black History Month.

You can celebrate by catching Denzel Washington in "The Tragedy of Macbeth" on the big screen or by watching Kanye West in "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy" on Netflix. You can "stimulate continuing inquiry" by streaming "Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland" on HBO or by viewing "Fannie Lou Hamer's America" on PBS. To fully appreciate the Black people hailed for their success, you need to understand their struggle.

"The American experience and character can never be fully grasped until the knowledge of Black history assumes its rightful place in our schools and our scholarship," Reagan said.

Black history is American history. If our nation ever gets this lesson down pat, there will be no need for Black History Month because that history simply will be U.S. history.