Black History Month: Could Try Harder?

October is Black History Month. At a time when serious interest in history – as distinct from rubbish like The Da Vinci Code – is at an epochal low, one section of the community at least is committed to investigating and celebrating the story of where they came from and how they got here. For the twenty-second year running, blue-collar workers, council officials, retirees, and school children will be organizing or attending exhibitions, lectures and other Black History events – last year there were more than 6,000 of them – up and down the country. About the only people who won’t be bothering with the whole business will be the academic specialists who generate the raw material of new or revised historical data on which popular history – the history enjoyed by ordinary people in the community – depends for its trustworthiness and vitality.