African American History

I remember being in high school, which was only a few years ago and learning basically nothing about my culture. Everything I ever learned about African Americans was basically watered down.(i.e Rosa Parks refused to give up here seat and it was a major change in the Civil Rights movement) Comments like that basically tell me nothing about Rosa Parks or who she was as a person. I basically learned that she was tired (WTH?) For a long time my focus was on African American lit. was reading a romance novel published by BET (Arabesque). Not to discredit BET or its authors, but I never really learned any history. Which saddened me. I wanted to learn but was never taught. So in the end, I am teaching myself. I went to the bookstore a few days ago and basically perched myself on the floor in front of the African American History section. People climbing over me and constantly saying excuse me but I wasn't moving. I was totally fascinated by the things that I didn't know and the people who I never heard of. There are so many people who contributed to the abolition of slavery, were involved in the Civil Rights movement and who just helped shaped America in general. I often wonder why schools never have a class totally focused on African American History. I took US History 1 and US History 2. There were only a few AA's mentioned in either course. Why? The school I attended was well over 60% black. So for us to not be taught anything about who we were and who got us to where we were was sad. I wanted to learn and I'm sure other's did too. There were some blacks in my history class. Most slept, others skipped (and I don't say this to make us sound bad or...) but the didn't find it interesting in the least. Which was understood. They couldn't relate to the people they were learning about in any way;race, actions, or struggle. And I honestly believe that if they had learned about people like them, alot of the sleeping and the skipping would have ceased.(IMO)

In the end, I bought a book. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. I just started it so i'm not quite sure as to how it is. But I'll be sure to post that. Next will be Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Which is an autobiography where Douglass describes himself as a man who became a slave and later, a slave who became a man. I'm getting there people...all in due time.