Has Black History Month become an anachronism?

Over the past couple of days I found myself watching a cable movie about Rosa Parks and a PBS piece on the Dockum Drug Store sit-in in 1958 here in Wichita, which led to the national desegregation of all Rexall stores around the country - and I was reminded that it's Black History Month.

But as Black History Month dawned this year I'd been listening to pundits debate Barack Obama's first two weeks in office and what impact Michael Steele will have as the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee....and suddenly Black History Month seemed out of place.

I've never been entirely comfortable with Black History Month anyway. Notable history should be celebrated year-round, irrespective of race or gender. At best, the designation seemed a compromise - a way to honor people and achievements and feats that had too long been ignored. For that, it should be lauded.

But a part of me wondered if it was morphing into an excuse to disregard noting the contributions of blacks the other 11 months of the year. Sure, you can eat here...as long as you stand in the corner over there. Sure, we'll salute what you've accomplished...one month a year. Don't bother us now --- you've got February, after all.

With the nation's first black president and first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, history of some sort is being made every day now. To some day tuck accounts of their tenures into a tidy Black History Month feature seems...denigrating.

Perhaps we still need Black History Month to remind ourselves where we as a nation once were, and how far we've come. But there's another reflection of that at the forefront of the nation's conscience.

He resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.