Black History is American History: Black History Educational Memories

During the taping for the Yahoo event Black History is American History NFL player and best selling author Sam Acho along with ESPN host Elle Duncan, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx and Entrepreneur Master P respond to a question asked by a 4th grade class learning about Black History with their own educational memories of learning about it in school.

Video Transcript

- We are all students in Mrs. R's fourth grade class and we are here to tell you a little bit about our learning and ask you a little bit about yours.

- We have loved learning about Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, and many more during Black History Month.

- We have learned about each person through reading books, creating slideshows, listening to quotes, watching videos, and classes and small group discussions.

- We've learned about some of these people before February and we will learn more about more interesting people in March, April, May, and June.

- We have two questions for you. The first is, what are some ways you remember learning about Black History Month in school?

- The second is, who is one person or one story that you related to or that really stuck out in your mind?

KRISTIN MYERS: All right. Let's start with you, Attorney Foxx, for that very adorable question from Mrs. Rautenberg's fourth grade class. What are some of your educational memories of learning about Black History Month?

KIM FOXX: You know, I remember being in fourth grade, too, and having to do a collage of Black History makers and put them-- put them on a board and writing about Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks and just found it fascinating. I was particularly fascinated by Black women who made history, as a Black girl, wanting to see where I could leave my mark.

And my most favorite person to learn about who wasn't a Black woman was Thurgood Marshall and Thurgood Marshall's fight for civil rights and justice while working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and fighting on behalf of communities that had been impacted by some of the things we'd heard about just a little bit ago, redlining and discrimination. And the fact that he fought those fights in the court and would eventually come to serve as the first African-American on the Supreme Court showed me that anybody who has struggled under the weight of oppression can reach their highest potential when given the opportunity.

And so reading about Thurgood Marshall inspired me to want to continue with my education and eventually go on to be a lawyer. But it always was ingrained in me, even when I was learning in school and putting those collages together, to go talk to my mother and my grandmother and people in my community and ask them to make sure that they knew the same things that I was knowing. Because Black history, as was said earlier, wasn't always taught and I wanted to make sure that as a community, that my home community knew the same things that I was learning, too.

KRISTIN MYERS: Master P, I want to toss this over to you because you were talking about how Black History Month was a great time to highlight Black entrepreneurs and a lot of Black achievements. I'm curious to know who you looked up to.

MASTER P: Yeah, for me it was Martin Luther King. It was all about dreaming. I had to recite the "I Have a Dream" speech from elementary all the way to high school. And the one person that I was fascinated by is Muhammad Ali. Just knowing him as an entertainer, as a sports figure, but how he always gave back the philanthropy. The courage he had to go out and stand up for stuff that he really could have just sit-in his mansion and stayed home. He went cross country. he did all type of things. It was about education. It was about the elderly. It was about the next generation. He fought for everything that we needed and he wasn't afraid to stand up.

And I think Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali, to me, these are my heroes. These are people that stood for something and was willing to die for what they stood for and I just respect it. It inspired me and it let me know that we can go on and be great and we could do stuff and we could-- it could be people that look like us that can make a difference. And we don't want a handout. We want a hand up.

And also, when you look at, you talk about business, I got to say Reginald Lewis in the 1970s. He created a multibillion dollar business and he wrote a book, "Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?" And I mean, these guys, to me, made a difference. Because when you look at it, this guy looked at economics empowerment, Martin Luther King looked at civil rights and freedom, and then when you look at Muhammad Ali, I mean, he just was the people's champ. He did whatever it took for us to shine.

KRISTIN MYERS: Sam, I want to come to you because, you know, we've had you on Yahoo Finance a bunch and we know that there's so much more to you than just being an athlete. But curious to know who some of your first heroes were, or who you looked up to first. Were they sports figures or were they something else?

SAM ACHO: Yeah. Well one of my first heroes was, in fact, a sports figure. A man by the name of Fritz Pollard who, in the 1920s, was the first African-American not only to play but also to coach in what would become the National Football League. Growing up, I didn't always dream of playing in the NFL. Yes, I know I've played the last nine years and have played, now I'm doing stuff on TV. But seeing him break barriers, not only from an athletic perspective.

Because I think as athletes, as a Black man, you say, OK, I can go and I can play in the NBA or the NFL. But he not only was playing, Fritz was also coaching, right? Fritz would also go on to own his own team in a separate league because he was actually kicked out. There were certain owners in the NFL-- what would become the NFL-- who said you're not allowed. So even to see the way that he fought back and said, you know what? I'll start my own league. He was one of the heroes that I looked at growing up.

But even on a deeper level I remember going to a predominantly Black school as a very young child-- five, six, seven years old-- and learning about so many different Black heroes, singing the Black National Anthem every single day. And then I switched schools. Just sort of to the question of, OK, what do you learn during school? I switched schools to a predominantly white school and it seemed as if the only heroes I learned about were Rosa Parks or Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King.

And so for me, at a young age, second grade, six, seven years old, I realized that there is a disparity in what we're learning. All 50 states have different standards on what they can and what they do and don't teach. There's no requirement to teach Black history in school. And so for me, I saw at a young age that there's a huge part of history that-- I would call it richness. Like glory. There's so much knowledge that many people aren't being taught. And so for me, I would try to eat up as much of it as I could at a younger age. And now as I've gotten older I'm continuing to learn more about different Black heroes who are and have made change in our society.

KRISTIN MYERS: Elle, I want to quickly ask you who you looked up to, particularly as a Black woman in media where we already know that white folks are overrepresented in newsrooms, in movies, and films. Who did you look up to and perhaps helped shape you in your career?

ELLE DUNCAN: Two women, actually. I used to talk and line up all of my stuffed animals because of Oprah. Because I just I saw this Black woman on television who was, like, the queen of daytime television and I thought it was incredible. From humble beginnings. And Robin Roberts. We both-- her father was a Tuskegee Airman. My grandfather was a Tuskegee Airman at the same time. They were friends. They were in Alabama together. My grandmother remembers, like, Robin being a little kid.

Robin started out doing radio. Again, southern, started out doing radio at the same radio station that I did when I was first coming up, and then, of course, became the first Black woman to be at ESPN and to host SportsCenter. So she remains an idol to me and someone that I look up for-- look up to in many, many ways. And I hope that in the same way she was my example of representation, I hope to do that for any young Black girls out there who are looking to do the same.