Black History Is U.S. History / It's time to put the role of blacks on center stage

It's time to end the racist white-out -- and to correct exaggerations by some blacks of black contributions to history. Publishers should revise textbooks that restrict blacks to a few chapters on slavery, civil rights and jazz, and fully incorporate black accomplishments in all chapters. School administrators and teachers should make sure that black contributions are laced throughout the curriculum, from science and technology to the humanities. Politicians and public officials should commemorate black achievements in ceremonies throughout the whole year. Corporations should regularly feature black achievements in their advertising and promotional materials. When the experience of blacks is accepted as central to the American story, black history will be what it always should have been -- American history.