Monday marks the end of Black History Month, and I’ve heard some people carp about black people getting the shortest month of the year. I hope they’re saying this in jest, but you never know.

When I first offered my thoughts on Black History Month, I indicated that I was of two minds on the subject.

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Our church held its semi-annual congregational meeting last week, and it was a time of celebration, challenge and commitment for the year to come. Since I’m mostly working from home these days, I was able to arrive a little early and help out.

It was a busy evening for me compared to past meetings; I sang with the worship team, and I was accorded the honor once again of being nominated for the position of elder. But the moment in which I felt God speaking to my heart didn’t involve singing or the affirmation of my church family. No, that moment came in the form of a two-month old baby boy named Elijah David Palmer.

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Note: This article appeared in the inaugural issue of Tea Party Review Magazine, which made its debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 11th, 2011.

They called it “The Year of the Black Republican”. In 2006, the year I first ran for public office, the Republican National Committee was making a concerted effort to promote minority candidates. I attended the RNC Minority Candidate College for training in how to run a successful campaign, and I met black and Hispanic Republican candidates from across the nation and at all levels of government.

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I have homework to do and, like a teenage boy, I’m procrastinating because I’m not looking forward to it.

Sitting on top of my computer is a red Netflix envelope containing the movie Rosewood. In case you don’t know it, it’s a fictional account of a horrific race-related episode that took place in the town of Rosewood, Florida in 1923. The movie was directed by John Singleton of Boyz n the Hood fame.

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February is Black History Month, and its observance isn’t without controversy.
 
Some question why we need a month that sets one group of Americans apart from the others, and they see it as yet another example of political correctness run amok.
 
Others believe that the history of blacks in America beyond the story of slavery, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement is given short shrift, and needs separation from the rest of American history in order to be given its due.

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