Brittany Packnett Instagram – “It is the curse of minorities in this power-worshipping world that either from fear or from an uncertain policy of expedience they distrust their own standards and hesitate to give voice to their deeper convictions, submitting supinely to estimates and characterizations of themselves as handed down by a not unprejudiced dominant majority.” Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, on whose scholarship feminism, womanism, and history sit, understood the assignment.  “There would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.” Carter G. Woodson, upon whose Negro History Week we built our #BlackHistoryMonth, understood the assignment. “Dear Mr. Nourse:  It is my desire to establish a special fund with which the Saint Louis Public Library may supplement its collection of books, manuscripts, papers, art objects or products, provided they deal with the American Negro, Africa and/or peoples of African descent in relation to their contribution to American and world culture.” Dr. Julia Davis, founder of the Julia Davis Fund & Collection of African diasporic history at St. Louis Public Library—and upon whom the foundation of my learnings rest, understood the assignment. A BHM retail discount ain’t the assignment, chile. The assignment will always be to preserve, protect, and pass on the Gospel of #BlackHistory.   To ensure its centrality in the American story: America was built by us, and can never be rebuilt for better without us. To secure its legacy and lineage: Black people building new worlds need the blueprints of our ancestors. To honor its triumphs: Reconnecting ourselves to the Black knowing that supremacy steals from us but our ancestors earned for us. To leverage its influence: Our fellow countryfolk, who like us are not from here, but unlike us were not stolen here, must bear witness to the foundation we built with toiled hands and ensure the house on which it stands shelters us all well. So this month, while the history is under threat, the truths are silenced, and the truth speakers attempt to be toppled: know, share & protect our HISTORY. And honor the HISTORIANS who, by trial and fire, risked everything to make sure we are never a people without a story.