>>Coming up on "American Black Journal", Black History Month.

Where does it come from?

We're gonna have a conversation with the head of the organization that founded the annual celebration of history and pride.

We'll also get the details on an event that will promote African-American literacy, and we'll hear a really wonderful performance from the Sphinx Competition.

Stay where you are, "American Black Journal" starts right now.

>>From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

>>Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

>>The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of "American Black Journal" in covering African-American history, culture, and politics.

The DTE Foundation and "American Black Journal" partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

>>Also brought to you by AAA, Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) >>Welcome to "American Black Journal".

I'm Stephen Henderson.

As you may know, Black History Month began in February 1926 as Negro History Week.

The celebration was created by noted African-American historian and educator, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, and it later grew to include the entire month of February.

Dr. Woodson was also the founder of what is now the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, known as ASALH.

This year, the organization is focusing on black health and wellness for its Black History Month virtual festival.

Here's my conversation with ASALH president, Dr. Marvin Dulaney.

So I think I wanna start here.

I think it's fair to say that thankfully people are starting to recognize that restricting the idea and the celebration of black history to a month doesn't make a lot of sense, that black history is American history, that there are important parts of black history that show up all over our culture and our history.

So then I think some people are saying, "So why still have a month, like Black History Month, "if we're moving toward a more general understanding "of the integration of black history with American history?"

I just wanna give you a couple minutes to talk about the importance of maintaining this month-long celebration as well.

>>Sure, you know, I've been engaged in the study of African-American history for, I'll say, about 50 years.

I came into this topic when I was a undergraduate student at Central State University, and I was part of what was called the Black Studies movement.

You know, at that time, we were protesting, shutting down universities, demonstrating, taking over the president's office, trying to get black studies as a part of the curriculum, both in the public schools, as well as in colleges and universities.

It was a struggle, a long and difficult struggle.

But here we are 50 years later, basically still trying to struggle to get African-American history and culture in our schools, and again, even in some colleges and universities, there's still a fight against, as you witnessed recently, this whole notion about, you know, critical race theory, and that it's, you know, making white students and white people in general, you know, feel bad because they have to learn black history, and read authors such as Toni Morrison.

So here we are, 2022, you know, 107 years after Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

Yet we're still facing this idea that black history should not be taught in the schools.

At least they're now saying, like one of Woodson's teachers told him at Harvard, that Negros had no history.

>>Yeah.

>>But now we're facing the fact that whites in general don't wanna learn black history.

They think it's, you know, makes them feel bad, and, you know, of course, always use the line.

For some reason, they're ashamed of their history when in reality, black history as you've pointed out, is a part of American history.

So we have to continue to do Black History Month because we still don't have the infusion and the comprehensive inclusion of African-American history and culture in American school curriculums.

You know, we are still not part of this master in that narrative, except maybe for Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

But as you know, our history goes well beyond Martin Luther king and Rosa Parks.

You know, we were a part of almost every aspect and every period of American history, from the colonial period, to the American Revolution, to the Antebellum Period, all of the wars, from the Revolutionary War, to the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and so on.

Yet here we are, as I said, in 2022 still fighting these same old battles that, you know, as I said, it's almost like I've been fighting these battles for 50 years.

I can remember in one of my first academic appointments, you know, the students asked me, "Why do you people have to have a whole month "to celebrate your history?"

And, of course, their pushback was we don't have a month to celebrate white history.

And, of course, I was able to point out very easily we celebrate white history every day.

>>All year, right?

>>Every month, you know, it's actually, you know, you're overwhelmed by it.

We all know the stories, you know, Paul Revere and Abraham Lincoln.

But indeed those stories, in the master narrative, usually do not include-- >>Yeah, they exclude us.

>>Yes, our stories are excluded.

So you know, I told an interviewer the other day, I want them to put me out of business, that is since the last... (laughing) >>I dare you to put me outta business, right?

>>Put me outta business.

I indeed, including the story of African-Americans in our master narrative.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

>>You know, and during Black History Month, I get run around a lot.

Not so much now because of COVID, but almost every year, you know, for 50 years, I get these calls in February, "When you come out and do a presentation "on Black history, you know, "you help us celebrate Black History Month."

Well, as I said, "Put me outta business."

All you got to do is include African-American history in the master narrative and teach it along with American history for 12 months.

>>Right, yeah.

>>We wouldn't have to do Black History Month.

>>That will be good, right.

>>Yeah.

>>So I do wanna talk about this year's focus, black health and wellness, and what that means in 2022, and what it will mean this month in terms of the things that you guys highlight.

>>Sure.

As you know, we decided the theme for Black History Month at least two years in advance.

It just so happens that our theme for this month or this year, black health and wellness, fits, I don't wanna say nicely, but indeed has, you know, been sort of coincidental with this terrible pandemic that we're suffering through.

And so, as a result, we indeed have designed our programs through ASALH and online, by the way, we're doing virtual presentations to deal with black health and wellness in a variety of ways.

One of them, one of the sessions is, in fact, is called Black Bodies I.

You know, looks at how blacks have been exploited for medical science in this country.

You know, from Marion Sims, to the Tuskegee Study, to the, you know, the use of Henrietta Lacks' cells.

Then we also have Black Bodies II, which looks at normal, what do they call this, it looks at how NFL players, you know, don't get the same consideration in terms of dementia and those concussions that white players get.

So we are looking at various aspects, you know, about African-American health and wellness, looking at indeed how COVID is sort of indicative of the disparities that blacks face in terms of health and wellness in this country.

>>Yeah.

And I think that's a really important point to make.

There's been a lotta talk about the disproportionate effect of COVID on the African-American community, and, of course, here in Detroit, I mean, this is ground zero for the incredible pain and sorrow that we as African-Americans are suffering because of it.

But it's not a COVID problem, that is an American health problem that is playing out through this deadly disease.

It existed before COVID, all of these problems, all of these disparities have been with us forever.

COVID makes it more in plain sight, I suppose.

And the effects of it are more devastating than some of the other things.

>>Yes, and, you know, as you said, all of this has existed for years.

One of the conferences that I used to attend before COVID was the National Conference on Health Disparities.

And, of course, at those conferences almost every year, and, you know, you learn of what they call the social determinants of health, income, where you live, the food deserts, and the type of work that African-Americans engage in, the use of African-Americans' communities as dumping places for environmental hazards, all of those things have affected our health, again, well before COVID.

And indeed one of the things that I learned at this conference was that black men had the worst health outcomes than any other group of people in our country, 'cause of the type of jobs we have, stress, and the fact that indeed some of us don't go to see the doctor or the dentist.

And so, yeah, we indeed became, you know, the highest risk group for COVID.

And, you know, I'll just say this, I lost a cousin to COVID because of, you know, his susceptibility to, you know, negative health outcomes.

>>Yeah.

Okay.

Well, congratulations again on the work for Black History Month.

And here's hoping someday they will put you outta business.

>>Let's hope so.

(laughing) >>That's right.

Thanks for being here.

Detroit Book City is shining a light on literacy during Black History Month.

The bookstore is gonna hold its sixth annual African-American family book expo on February 19th.

The event features several black authors, giveaways, and, of course, lots of books for adults and for children.

I spoke with the president of Detroit Book City, Janeice Haynes, and the event's featured guest author, Dr. Lathardus Goggins II.

So Denise, I can't remember which annual expo I talked to you before about, but it's been a while.

So catch us up on the expo, how it's going, how it's been, and how it's grown.

This is the sixth annual.

>>This is the sixth annual.

And the last time we spoke was February the 16th, 2018 is when we came on your show.

>>Oh my goodness.

>>So we featured the second annual.

(Stephen laughs) >>Okay.

>>This is so exciting.

We're so excited to be back.

I tell you, this pandemic thing, man, it really threw us for a loop, you know?

>>Yeah.

>>Back then, you know, I think we had just opened up the bookstore on Greenfield Road, and we were operating successfully, we're inside the school systems, we were getting corporate orders for book orders.

And then, of course, here come the pandemic, which put us down for about a year and a half.

We closed April 2020, and we just reopened, thankfully, January 8th.

And now we're in Lathrup Village on Southfield Road.

So we're still alive.

This is our fifth year.

We're really excited.

We're excited about the African-American, you know, that's our biggest event.

I think our first event, we drew out like 2,500 people.

>>Wow.

>>So, you know, this is exciting to back.

That's all I can say, we're excited.

Of course, the scale of the event is much smaller because of the pandemic, and we have to practice safety measures, but we are back, and we are back and alive with books.

So preserving literacy in the Detroit community.

>>So I wanna give you just a little bit of time to talk about books.

I mean, I'm a great lover of words, and ideas, and books, and magazines, and newspapers.

And there are a lot of people who say, we don't need those things in the same way we used to, and that we don't need bookstores in the same way they used to.

So talk about what the real role is of bookstores right now in the middle, not just of this pandemic, but of this real transition in technology.

>>Well, you know, books are here to stay.

It's fundamental.

Reading is a super power, you know.

The African-American community needs to have more access to our books, and it needs to be in the community.

Reading, how important is reading, you know.

It helps you function as an adult.

It helps you function as a child.

And the bookstores, is an essential part of it.

I mean, African-Americans can't read if we don't have access to our books.

So the independent bookstores are super important.

Look at the initiative they have going on now, shop small, shop local, shop in the bookstores.

I mean, we even have the American Booksellers Association that came after black bookstores now.

They know how important it is, you know.

It's a social change going on right now.

When is the best time to read?

Right now.

They say, if you wanna find up some true information, some facts, statistics, you'll find it in a book.

>>Yeah.

>>So the physical book is not going anywhere.

It's here, and thanks to the xennials.

>>Yeah, and, of course, reading for joy, you know, that's the one thing that I've always reveled in, is that books and other publications can take you to places you've never been, they can plan ideas that you never had, and they can thrill you in a way that almost no other medium can.

>>Absolutely, and it's like a comfort zone.

Is the smell, is the feel.

It's like, once you get emersed in a book, there's no distractions.

You can actually shut the door, cut the phone off, turn the laptop down, and you can have a intimate moment with a book and really enjoy it.

I mean, today you have adults that read children books, you know, because they like the picture, picture books tell stories.

I mean, not even that, you know, older people are still reading.

We have senior citizens that come at our store to get books.

They like poetry.

You know, poetry is a way of life, you know, it's your soul, it's your spirit.

So you know, taping into a book, it enlightens your whole mindset, it takes you to a whole another level.

And like you said, joy, joy, the joy of reading, that's our tagline at Detroit Book City, the joy of reading for the entire family.

So there's a lotta joy in books.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

So Lathardus Goggins II, you are coming to the middle of all of this celebration of books, and you'll be the featured author.

Tell us a little more about yourself, and about your connection to this festival.

>>Well, I am a long time lover of scholarship and the independent black bookstore.

I'm out of Akron, Ohio.

It has been the university.

It has been the public library.

It has been the place of debate, of intellectualism.

It has been a place where you learn that there is a whole world of information out there that is specific to us, about us, for us, that begins to challenge, why haven't I learned this in the school, why I didn't learn this in other places?

Why when I go to a big box bookstore, they had that little section over there, but the intellectuals, the great giants are not there?

So I'm so excited to be a part of this festival and this book expo.

I've heard about it over the years, even down here in Akron, Ohio, and was excited to be a part of it, and to be featured as an author.

And so I'm excited about that.

My books are centered around African center rights of passage, and what's important for me is working with young people in particular, but families in general about how to facilitate the authentic self, right?

This how do we pass on the wisdom from one generation to the next, and do so in a way that helps facilitate the authentic self?

There's also what I've shown in my research and some other things, great impact on academic achievement, on resiliency.

And even when our children, and as we all have done, I know I did, myself, mess up, but when you have that strong measure of self, you know that you're messing up, and it calls you back to your purpose.

And so those are the kinds of things that I talk about and write about.

And then just as we are starting Black History Month, I'm looking over my shoulder here, "365 Black: Nuggets of Wisdom for Each Day of the Year".

I have a book where that gives you a nugget of wisdom, a saying, a quote, one for each day of the year.

Even though it's Black History Month, we know we concentrate, but black history is something that we, and black thought and intellectualism is something that we celebrate year round.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

So Lathardus, I'm curious, what drew you to authorship, and writing, and the celebration of words and ideas?

>>It really was a journey.

My father was a intellect, he's passed out, but he had three terminal degrees.

My mother had a terminal degree.

My grandfather was a superintendent back in Louisiana.

And I swore up and down, I would never go into education.

(laughing) And just through a series of events, and also being formally introduced to rights of passage, I was able to look back and see how the things that my family had done for me, my ninth birthday was a trip across the continent of Africa, and all the kind of rituals and things that were going on that saved me and prepared me in ways that I did not recognize until I had this information to look back on.

And so having done that, I was just compelled to write.

And so my first book, "African Centered Rites of Passage and Education", came out of my master's thesis.

'Cause when I swore up and down, I wasn't going into education, I was enrolled in an MBA program.

But when I came to that realization, I switched to education.

And my master's thesis was looking at the rights of passage process and its connection to education as a concept, and nothing had been done like that before.

So that's what I did.

And that really got me moving in this direction, the scholarship and the commitment and the conviction that I had to get this information out, and to honor the scholars that came before me, and make these connections between big concepts.

A lot of people were addressing at-risk youth and looking at us through a deficiency analysis.

And what became clear is that the strength and the resiliency that is inherent in our community was always there, has always been there, had to be uplifted and brought back into our consciousness.

>>Yeah.

>>And so those were the kind of things that motivated me to get me into this.

>>Yeah, I mean, you're a perfect, you're a perfect featured author.

>>You see why I chose him, Stephen?

>>Yeah, right?

(laughing) >>I appreciate that, Jaenice.

>>Well done.

(Jaenice laughs) >>Well, Jaenice, again, congratulations on-- >>Thank you, we're excited, we're excited.

>>And Lathardus, we really look forward to you being here with us in Detroit.

>>I appreciate it, I look forward to making the trip.

I'm glad and very appreciative.

>>Yeah, okay, thanks for being here.

>>Thank you.

>>Thank you.

>>That'll do it for us this week.

Thanks for watching.

As always, you can always find out more about our guests as well @americanblackjournal.org.

And you can connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

We're gonna leave you with a performance from this year's Sphinx Competition, which you can watch right here on Detroit Public Television on February 21st at 9:00 p.m.

Here is bassist Kebra-Seyoun Charles.

Enjoy, and we'll see you next time.

(bright orchestral music) >>From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

>>Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

>>The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of "American Black Journal" in covering African-American history, culture, and politics.

The DTE Foundation and "American Black Journal" partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

>>Also brought to you by AAA, Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)