E. Timothy Moore, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke in the Kiva last night on the significance of Black History Month. DANIEL DOHERTY | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: DKS Editors

It shouldn’t be so much a black history month as just a history month.

That was the rationale behind Tim Moore’s “Why Black History Month?” presentation last night in the Kiva.

Black History Month is celebrated during February in the United States and Canada, and during October in the United Kingdom, said Moore, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Moore’s message was that society shouldn’t take this one month out of the year to focus on the accomplishments of black people, but that it should include their achievements in the overall history of the world.

“I am not a person that buys into the idea of race,” said Moore. “There is a human race, and that’s it.”

The presentation focused on many influential black people who seem to have been forgotten – the unfamiliar faces of people who had a profound impact on the shaping of the world.

Moore guided the audience through pages of great African rulers in history, taken from a calendar that Budweiser put out years ago. He said this calendar is what inspired him to give the presentation.

He pointed out black figures seldom found in history books; such as Richard Theodore Greener, the first black person to graduate from Harvard University; Madame C.J. Walker, the first black female millionaire and Carter Godwin Woodson, the person responsible for establishing Black History Month.

“It’s good to hear about people other than Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, like Benjamin Banneker, that’s something you would have to go looking for,” communication studies major Kayla Griffin said.

Moore talked about the importance of looking past the color of one’s skin, and how people have become too caught up in labeling themselves and each other as a color rather than a person from a different place.

He said he hopes his message will help the younger generations continue to grow and “expand their understanding” of the world.

“I hope that you sift and find the kernels of truth in the multiplicity of lies that you have been told,” Moore said.

Contact ethnic affairs reporter Jessica Cole at [email protected].