There’s nothing wrong with this kind of remembrance of the past. Granted, we ought not keep our study of black history to twenty eight days, but Black History Month is a nice reminder of the incredible legacies made by people like Claudette Colvin, Ida Wells, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson, and Shirley Chisolm, not to mention black LGBT Americans like Barbara Jordan, Laverne Cox, and Marsha P Johnson. We’ll hopefully read plenty of inspiring tales this February of African American heroes, both familiar and unfamiliar. Black History Month exists just because we were told in school that our past was important, right? Part of this is because many understandably don’t see history as integral to our daily lives.

However, I’m going to assume that not everyone reading this (or even the majority) are going to share my passion (obsession?) with history. I’m a historian, so it’s not going to shock you that I want you to love history like I do.

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