-History is a Kaleidoscope- Pamela L. Spratlen.

February 28, 2014

“History is a Kaleidoscope,” Pamela L. Spratlen.

On February 27 Pamela L. Spratlen, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Kyrgyz Republic, made a speech to students of AUCA. The topic of her speech was “Black History Month and its importance for the Study of American History.”

Black History Month is celebrated by the United States every February. It is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora in America.

According to Ms. Spratlen’s lecture, Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States when historian Carter G. Woodson announced that the second week of February would be "Negro History Week." This particular month was chosen due to the birthdays of several great Americans who played important roles in guiding American history. They are President George Washington (born on February 22), President Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and escaped slave, rights activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (February 14).

Ambassador Spratlen talked about the struggle of African Americans for equality and literacy after the end of the slavery. She also mentioned champions of African American rights who changed the lives of African Americans for the better. Of these great people were Rosa Parks who once refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus when there was a law stating that African Americans had to give up certain seats to whites and who was eventually called "the mother of the freedom movement.” The Ambassador also noted Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in the Civil Rights movement, and Ida Bell Wells-Barnett who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a train.

During the lecture, Ms. Spratlen presented books that illuminate African American history. Of these great works were “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama, “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois, “An Education of a Negro” by Carter G. Woodson, “Playing in the Dark” by Toni Morrison, and many others.

Ambassador Spratlen stated that knowing history is very important as a way of making it real in the present.

“If we don’t write or speak about something important – it didn’t exist,” she said.

The event ended with an informative question and answer session. Faculty and students felt enriched by the lecture. 

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