On this first day of Black History Month (and Langston Hughes’ birthday), I want to remind everyone that Black History is American history (and world history for that matter) and it is a living history.

With that in mind, you can read books by a historical great like Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin AND you can explore authors like Ntozake Shange, Michael Harriot, Ibram X. Kendi and Octavia Butler, whose books are sure to be banned due to the legal erasure that is happening to history. Not a reader? There are several movies in theaters now – Origin, The Color Purple and American Fiction – that would be a good starting point for understanding not only the history but the present for Black people and racism, our constant and unflappable companion.

For those who like to travel, you can visit a museum dedicated to the history and culture of Black and African Americans. There is, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama; the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC; National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee; National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee; California African American Museum in Los Angeles, CA; The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York; The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; Whitney Plantation, Wallace, Louisiana, just to name a few.

There are many ways to learn for those who choose to do so. And when we learn about each other, it is much more difficult to practice hatred and separation.