I learned about Black History Month in first, second, or third grade. Mind you, I attended a public school system that was struggling with diversity and inclusion. I had some teachers and support staff that weren't too excited to teach Black History. I learned about Crispus Attucks, Benjamin Bannaker, George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Martin Luther King Jr or Medgar Evers may have had a mention in our textbooks. I remember watching Roots with my mother every Black History Month. Something about whipping human beings, selling other human beings that didn't have White skin, or humiliating other human beings that didn't think like you didn't sit right with me as a kid.
I was reading my dad's Jet magazine he would get in the mail. I would read about Andrew Young, Tom Bradley, Harold Washington, and David Dinkins. I would read about historically Black colleges and universities like Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Central State University, etc. I would read copies of Ebony Magazine or Black Enterprise magazine from a neighbor's house. I was lucky to have access to Essence magazine. It was empowering to see images of accomplished Black men and women instead other stereotypical portrayals displayed on television.
In third grade to high school, I learned about Hannibal Barca, the Harlem Renaissance, apartheid in South Africa, Stephen Biko, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Sidney Poitier, Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Muhammad Ali. I also learned about W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Bob Marley, H. Rap Brown, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson Sr., Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles R. Drew, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Marcus Garvey. I had teachers that taught Black History, despite protestations of "who deserves a mention" based on "merit". In other words, there were faculty members who made "suggestion" of which person gets honors and which ones were "trouble makers".
The ones called "trouble makers" didn't make it in the school libraries. Yes, those books were forbidden in the school libraries. An example would be Malcolm X, Shaka Zulu, Black Panther Party, Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, and the Maroons. I guess it must have scared some people to have people that were deemed inferior to have any type of fight in them.
I learned about Lorraine Hansberry, Garrett Morgan, Queen Nzinga, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Madam C. J. Walker, and others while I was in the U. S. Navy.
Right now, I have admire these women and Larycia Hawkins. I am grateful for the shoulders I stand because those before me made a way for me.