For a relatively few days annually, usually 28, but it extends to 29 every four years, people and their institutions in North America undertake an invaluable exercise: they reflect on the contributions of people of color to human civilization.  

It's during the month of February that millions set out to educate themselves and others on the innovations that have prolonged life, their literature they have enjoyed, and the dramatic changes that have helped to make us who we are as a nation and a region, all the genius of Blacks. That exciting period is known as Black History Month. It's when elementary, middle and high schools, universities, colleges, museums, libraries, neighborhood and community organizations, churches and an array of repositories of knowledge across the land zero in on the chapters in the history of high achieves, who in different ways have transformed lives in every corner of the globe. And the milestones didn't have racial boundaries.  

Black History's importance is obvious. For while the record of the accomplishments of Black men and women is the oldest, it is certainly the least known. That global unfamiliarity can be traced to the likes, loves and hates of historians, many of whom for centuries didn't consider the achievements of Blacks to be significant. And when Blacks achieved greatness, they were often ignored or, at worst, ascribed to others, usually to Europeans.  

Just the other day, archeologists unearthed tools in Africa which shed new light on the movement of people from the continent, at least 50,000 years earlier than experts had previously thought. A vigorous debate began immediately about the validity of the claims, with many scientists rejecting the outright. The most recent findings simply added to existing evidence found decades ago in modern Tanzania which led to the sound conclusion that human development began in Africa. That finding was enhanced with the discovery of tools in central Nigeria and in modern day Zimbabwe. The scientists were able to determine that they were made more than 39,000 years ago. When combined the strands of scientific evidence supported the expert conclusion that Africa was the cradle of human life. Still, many historians and scientists cling to a Eurocentric bias fiction that sought to relegate Blacks to the sideline of human endeavor.  

Little wonder then that the late Black American historian, Carter G. Woodson, set out in the 1920s to eliminate the cobwebs that trapped and hid the facts about Black contribution. He started with Negro History Week in 1926 in the United States which was later expanded to Black History Month. He is on our list of heroes.  

Professor Emeritus of history, Dr. Keith Sandiford, of the University of Manitoba in Canada, put it succinctly when he complained two years ago that "while white performers are idolized by the Western media, Black innovators remain curiously concealed in the shadows of history." 

But what did Blacks do in those early millennia. Quite a lot, assert archeologists.  

When hundreds of thousands Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo and demanded the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, television viewers were frequently shown images of pyramids, some of the accepted wonders of the world. Blacks were among the skilled laborers and architects who designed and built the monuments thousands of years old. They also led the way in the making of iron and the use of plants as medicines that prolonged life. Twenty first century jewelers owe much of their skill to the African pioneers who developed the art of using gold and silver to make valuable pieces that adorn the necks, hands, waists and ears of women and men around the world. Archeologists often describe them as the world's first farmers, who produced wheat, kola and coffee.  

There is more. Blacks are credited with waving the plant "gossypium harbaceum" into cloth. Just as important scientific evidence abounds to support the conclusion that Blacks in Africa developed cereals for human consumption.  

Undoubtedly, then, Blacks have left a significant mark on agriculture, chemistry, engineering, food production, mathematics, literature, the visual and performing arts and physics. And area that's often overlooked: in governance. The African empires of Mali, Songhay, Ghana and Ethiopia flourished at a time when Europe was a feudal society.  

What a pity, then, that these facts are often ignored by those who should know better and are in position to give credit where it is due. It also explains why Black History Month observances, the staged productions, the books that are published and the various activities that spread accurate information about Black contributors to human civilization are so necessary – vital is perhaps the best way to describe their value.  

We would be a far more educated society if we knew much more about each other and give credit where it is due.