DATE: Sunday, March 2, 1997                 TAG: 9703020042

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  150 lines

BLACK HISTORY MONTH ENDS; LESSONS LAST YEAR ROUND SCHOOL TEXTS AND LIBRARY INFORMATION ON HERITAGE IS EXPANDING EVERY YEAR.

On Friday, the last official night of Black History Month, The Not Just For February Players were on a roll they wish would last all year.

Two of the Portsmouth-based players, Joan Rhodes-Copeland and George Eason Jr., began their performance by dramatizing slave narratives.

They moved on to the sometimes funny, sometimes sad works of present-day poets and singers - including Diana Ross and the Supremes.

At the end of the performance at First Baptist Church of South Hill in Chesapeake, Rev. Ernest Simmons thanked them for the ``emotional-cultural roller coaster ride.''

Eason and Rhodes-Copeland say that roller coaster ride works just as well in August as it does in February. And even those who believe deeply in the meaning of Black History Month worry that even as it raises awareness, it might give people an excuse to ignore the issues the rest of the year.

In other words, they say, don't put away the purpose with the posters of great black Americans that came down Friday.

``We want people to tap into the black culture all year round,'' Rhodes-Copeland said.

She would get no argument from Hugo A. Owens Sr., who in 1970 was one of the first two blacks to be elected to the Chesapeake City Council. But, Owens might add, that one month is progress.

``As a little boy growing up in Deep Creek, all of the information we got regarding history was void of any positive reference of people who look like me,'' said Owens, 81, a retired dentist. ``I've seen it go from no history, to Negro History Week, to Negro History Month.''

Owens was 10 in 1926 when Carter G. Woodson, generally acknowledged as the father of African American history, came up with the idea to have a Negro History Week every February to honor the birthdays of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

BUT MANY ARGUE that the collective history they and others made belong in our minds - and school textbooks - all year long.

``The issues of race relations, not just black and white, are the most recurring and important issues in our country. So we can't segregate those issues to February,'' said James Loewen, a Washington-based sociologist who wrote a book critiquing American history texts.

``It's not a matter of black history. This is U.S. history.''

The downside of having a Black History Month is that people might think that's all that's needed, some say.

``That's the bad part,'' said William E. Ward, mayor of Chesapeake and a history professor at Norfolk State University. ``You put a bunch of pictures on the wall, then you go back to teaching history from a white angle for 11 months. Because after February, you go back to the myth.''

Ward added that some ``Afro-centric'' approaches to history that portray blacks as superior to whites are also harmful. ``That's creating another myth,'' said Ward.

Despite its pitfalls, Ward said we still need a Black History Month.

``It's still necessary, until there is a willingness and commitment on the part of teachers to fully explain the black experience in an integrated manner,'' said Ward. ``The only way to teach history is with a high degree of honesty about the roles played by all people in this American experience.''

That's happening more and more, due in part to the relative wealth of materials now available to teachers, said Lannah Hughes, the high school social studies coordinator for Virginia Beach Schools.

There used to be nothing available for classroom use, she said.

``Now there's a market for it, and the quality of it is much better,'' Hughes said. ``The stuff used to be, not necessarily junk, but it just keyed in on a few people.''

Hughes said she has seen an evolution in American history textbooks containing more information on the contributions of minorities and women.

``It used to be you'd look at a textbook and you wouldn't find anything,'' she said.

Not long ago, ``they chopped out a picture and put in a little blurb, but there wasn't any flow to it. It was an afterthought,'' said Hughes. ``Now, it has become part of the flow of the narrative.''

THAT'S DECIDEDLY NOT the history George Eason Jr. remembers from his history classes growing up in the 1960s.

``There was maybe one page on Virginia slaves and it would say, `They helped clean up and were very happy,' '' said Eason, a member of The Not Just For February Players. ``It left no detail, and there was nothing to be proud of.''

Eason said his awakening came when he was a junior high student and an older friend took him to the library.

``He pointed out the things I didn't know. When I learned it on my own, I was angry,'' said Eason.

Eason was angry about having been denied the rich history of black Americans. It's something Pat McCarthy, a 1994 graduate of Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, is also angry about.

McCarthy, who is white, is a junior at a historically black college, Virginia State University in Petersburg. His experience at the school has raised his awareness of black culture, he said.

McCarthy said that while he remembers Black History Month being celebrated in high school, it was primarily limited to one assembly.

``Some of the white students didn't want to be forced to recognize it,'' he said.

McCarthy said he believes such an attitude is a mistake, as is the idea that black history - or the history of any minority group - has nothing to do with whites. He added that public schools should include education about other cultures.

ELIZABETH GRIFFING, THE ADULT programming coordinator at Chesapeake Central Library, fears that some whites feel they might not be welcome at black history events such as the ones her library offered in February. She said that while the events were well attended, the audience was predominantly black.

``I think if people realized it's not black people pointing fingers at you, saying, `You're wrong.' It's not saying that. It's saying, `This is the rich, deep history that maybe you can learn something from,' '' she said.

However, what is learned from a truly integrated history might not always be comfortable for those who have not had to face the negative aspects of their own heritage.

``There are some things in there, that if you're white, they're going to jar you. They may even make you angry, but it's going to make you think,'' said Hughes.

And that's the point of studying history in the first place, said sociologist Loewen.

Loewen said one of the marks of black history done well, is if it includes the contributions whites have made - not just the slaveowners, but the whites who fought for abolition in the 19th century and civil rights in this century.

And there has been progress, said Loewen.

``There are some surprisingly positive things appearing on the landscape,'' he said.'

LOEWEN GAVE THE EXAMPLE of a walking tour he went on recently commemorating the 1909 race riots in which whites terrorized blacks in Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Ill.

Students conceived the walking tour idea from a history project they were working on in school.

``Two white seventh graders pushed for it,'' said Loewen.

At the Chesapeake Central Library, Griffing said she and the other librarians are seeing more and more kids doing reports on people of all backgrounds - and she's seeing that all year, not just during special history months.

Black history is ``highlighted in February, but it's all year. Whenever they study inventors, black inventors are there. It's incorporated more and more,'' said Griffing.

And, as their name suggests, The Not Just for February Players would like nothing more than to be as busy throughout the year as they are in February.

``All of us are busy during the month of February. It's so hard to do so many things in the shortest month of the year. We chose the name so we wouldn't be confined to 28 days,'' said Eason. ILLUSTRATION: [Photo]

BETH BERGMAN/File photo

The displays and posters about Black History Month, such as this

display at Chesapeake Public Library being viewed by Kimberly Hill,

are being taken down, but the consciousness raised is hoped to last

all year. ``. . . we can't segregate those issues to February,''

says James Loewen, a sociologist. KEYWORDS: BLACK HISTORY

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