Today, February 1, 2021 marks the beginning of Black History Month in the United States.

Last year was a seminal year for black history with the COVID-19 pandemic exacting a particular harsh toll on black Americans. Then there were the protests across the country condemning the killing by a policeman of George Floyd and the surge of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

The year 2020 also saw a hotly contested presidential election with Donald Trump losing to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris going on to be sworn in as the country’s first black female vice president.

Black History Month comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic that began in January 2020 shows no sign of abating. As of today, more than 26 million Americans have contracted the virus, with 430,000 dead as a result.

BRINGING BACK ‘A SEAT AT THE TABLE’

To celebrate Black History Month, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is bringing back, ‘A Seat At The Table’, a digital interactive discussion over a meal about race, politics and justice.

The History Channel will honour the Tuskegee airmen of World War II in a documentary hosted by veteran journalist Robin Roberts.

YouTube will be celebrating Black History Month with its ‘Black Renaissance’ featuring black artists of yesterday and today.

The Nasdaq has announced that it will be putting in place measures to ensure board diversity for companies listed on the stock exchange.

To commemorate Black History Month, South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn wrote: “Although he expressed hope that political activism and the election of President Lyndon B. Johnson would bring about change Blacks hoped to see, Dr [Martin Luther] King wrote that ‘wait almost always meant never’. In Why We Can’t Wait, Dr King argued that the promise of America had been denied to African Americans for 300 years and attempts to prolong the wait for equal rights would be met with persistent nonviolent resistance.

“Shortly before his life was cut short by the type of violence and ill will he had always extolled against, Dr King wrote another rather profound book entitled Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, which – in my not so humble opinion – can be viewed as a roadmap for us today.”

Commenting on  the rancour, racial conflict, divisiveness that is America today, Clyburn added: “We are again faced with the ‘fierce urgency of now’. This country does not need to be made great; it is great. Our challenge is making that greatness accessible and affordable for all. And we wo do well to heed historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s admonition that our ‘greatness’ lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but in our ability to repair our faults.”