One of the most iconic images I see every February during Black History Month is that of civil rights activist Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer appearing before the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She spoke on behalf of the all-Black Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party asking to be seated at the convention because Blacks had been excluded from the all-White Mississippi Democratic Party delegation. In her testimony she described the terrors, indignities and enduring threats of violence and death Black Mississippians experienced for simply wanting to vote. As she concluded her remarks, she asked the convention audience a poignant question, “Is this America, the land of the free, the home of the brave?”
In this final week of Black History Month, like the years before, I have seen the familiar documentaries about the African American experience. Some of the topics covered in these documentaries have included Slavery in Colonial and Post-Colonial America, the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Migration of African Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South, and the heroic military service of African Americans in every American war going back as far as the American Revolution. Each February after viewing these documentaries, I experience the same pain in my heart watching scenes of suffering and struggle and of pride in the freedoms and victories African Americans won at what always seemed to be against the odds.
At the end of this February I am asking the same question Ms. Hamer raised but from a different perspective and for a different reason. Is this America, the land of the free, the home of the brave? Because today we are experiencing calls to erase, rewrite or diminish this part of American history. There has been a whole lot of talk about not highlighting Black history, not including it in our children’s school history lessons, removing books on Black history from libraries, and even government orders to remove factual references to the lived stories of African Americans at national historical sites.
Black history must not be erased, rewritten, diminished or feared. To the contrary, as we spend 2026 marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, we should be particularly cognizant of all of our history and all of the people who contributed to it. This includes remembering the stories of the blemishes and scars of injustice that defaced the aspirational promises of freedom and equality declared in our nation’s founding documents, as well as the glorious stories of solidarity among Americans fighting for a democracy to be enjoyed by every citizen. Our failure to remember and preserve our history risks our forgetting and not instructing our children about the gains made toward justice and equality in America and the very real danger of America going backward toward oppression, injustice and inequality.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s story and the stories of numerous men, women and children who were on the frontlines of the protests of the Civil Rights Movement will remain a Black History Month mainstay for me. These courageous men, women and children were America, fighting for freedom, bravely marching to the courthouses and statehouses of the South in protest of racist voting registration requirements that prevented most African Americans from being able to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. They would do this at great personal risk, including being fired from their jobs by White employers who objected to their actions, being beaten and jailed during and after peaceful protests, or even death from the most extreme violence inflicted against them. They showed us how people can rise-up in solidarity, protest systemic inequities and ultimately move lawmakers to legislate just laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
I am sure that I am not alone in being intentional in my participation in Black History Month activities, by either viewing a documentary or attending church, community or school planned events. I think it would only be individuals with the hardest of hearts who are not moved and inspired by this part of American history. While it is painful, it is also inspirational, and let us not forget this history is America, the land of the free, the home of the brave.
(Veryl Victoria Miles serves as special assistant to the president of The Catholic University of America and is a professor at the university’s Columbus School of Law.)
