Black History Month reminds us to recognize people for achievements, not politics

Black History Month often finds us in one of our grandchildren’s classrooms where the walls are covered with stories and pictures of important African Americans. Dr. King, Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall are usually there along with some lesser-known heroes like Mae Jemison, Madame C. J. Walker and Chappie James. I always learn something from the kids’ reports and it’s a good way to introduce them to a history they might not be familiar with. In all the times I have looked at these reports, there is one man who is rarely, if ever, included despite his is a very important place in the history of America. He was born in poverty in a town with the well-deserved name of Pinpoint, Georgia. It was a tiny collection of a few shacks along the Georgia coast whose residents were descendants of West African slaves. His first language wasn’t English, but “Geechee” which derived from the patois of African languages that were imported with the enslaved people. He didn’t learn to speak English until he started school. After his parents divorced when he was two, he lived with his mother and siblings in a one-room, dirt-floor shack with no electricity or running...