Black History Month is a month to remember those famous African-Americans who started an easier life for everyone else. Black History Month was started as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson, an author, historian and journalist who inspired many others.

Last year, in the loving month of February, we read a book about a slave that told us how they were treated. We also read about Nathaniel Alexander, the first black man to patent and revise a folding chair – that surprised me because without him, I would be sitting on the hard floor at school crouching to do my social studies test.
The ideas that sprang from African-Americans have made our lives easier. Their achievements tell the world that no matter what your color is, or where you’re from, or what your religion is, we all are human.

Black History Month discusses great people and is a great event that brings us all together, that brings America together and makes it a more wonderful place to live.

These great African-American achievers should be named for what they have done, and some of them are:

Muhammad Ali: The greatest boxer in the world that everyone knows about, no matter where you live.

Muhammad Ali was denied an autograph by his role model, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, and when he became a famous boxer, he never declined anyone an autograph.

Louis Armstrong: He bought his first trombone when he was 7 and taught himself how to play at home. Nowadays, 7-year-olds stay at home to watch TV shows like “SpongeBob SquarePants,” munch on chips and go to sleep.

From the poverty Armstrong lived in, he went on to become a famous musician.

Michael Jackson: Who doesn’t know the genius of “Thriller,” the man who created a piece of music that really “thrilled” the world? The “King of Pop” went all the way to the top with his songs and he gave many great dreams and became a role model to little kids.

Jesse Owen: The first African-American to walk away from the Olympics with four gold medals, he did it because he was interested in what he was doing.

The pride he felt as they crowned him with a gold medal stands in contrast to how his ancestors were treated in an unfair way many years ago.

Michael Jordan: Before his basketball legend, he was cut from his high-school basketball team for being undersized. People didn’t even know how he played and they cut him for his looks. That’s like how the popular people at school don’t talk to “nerds” because they are “uncool.”

Martin Luther King Jr.: “I have a dream ...” those words still echo in the hearts of millions, and what he did for them, for America, changed the minds of many.

Barack Obama: The president of the United States of America, who has helped the economy and people in the world.
They believed there was space for more people to come in and make not just America but also the world a great place.

When these people were born, all they had were their names; when they died, etched on their gravestones was a name full of achievements. Their great achievements still leave us astounded to this day.

I believe that Black History Month is a month to forget about race, hate, color and religion prejudices, and, instead, hold hands together and celebrate underneath the precious anti-hate clouds. 

These important people have made their way through history leaving us to follow in their footsteps.

Nimra Fatima is a grade 6 student at Herbert Hoover Middle School in Edison, New Jersey.