Why does Black History Month matter?
About 10 years ago, Shukree Hassan Tilghman tried to cancel Black History Month.
Outfitted in a sandwich board with the words "End Black History Month" written across the front, he walked the streets of New York City looking for people to sign his petition to do away with it.
To figure out what Tilghman was up to, it helps to know the other side of his placard read "Black history is American history." It also helps to know he was filming all this for a documentary he made, "More Than A Month." That movie explored an ongoing question about Black History Month; rather than lifting up African American accomplishment, does it instead maintain a segregated history of America?
"Some people think it was a stunt," says Tilghman. In some ways it was one, but he was also being genuine.
Tilghman says the "core impulse" for his petition to end Black History Month was rooted in his childhood. Both of his parents were school teachers, and those posters of famous Black people that go up on
