Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.” – Harriet Tubman

All of our histories make up our American story. This year, as we celebrate Black History Month, there is a debate raging over what history is relevant, what history is taught to the next generation, and what history is marginalized or erased. It is also the 100th anniversary of historian Carter G. Woodson launching Negro History Week in 1926 to ensure the history and accomplishments of Black Americans would not be lost in the community or in the history of the country. He noted, “those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”

In February 2026, a hidden safehouse on the Underground Railroad, a secret passage system from the slavery-legalized Southern states to the Northern free states and Canada, was found at a landmark museum in New York City. ​​Inside the Merchant’s House Museum in Manhattan, this vertical passageway was created for those deprived of their personal freedom, rights, and humanity who were lucky enough to escape the plantation economy of the South and to try to build a life when they were still considered legal property rather than citizens. The rediscovery of the safehouse in New York is a tangible reminder of the role the enslaved once played as the backbone of the American economy; those silenced voices are still an integral part of the American story.

The Fred T. Korematsu Institute is proud to recognize Black History Month, which looks back into the dark history of our past to the chattel slavery, cultural decimation, and community erasure of African Americans, but also at the throughline of Black Underground Railroad operators, activists, lawmakers, changemakers, and all who have fought for civil rights and true equality.

Even without the physical reminders of the darker parts of our American story, the ripple effect of chattel slavery from the arrival of the first chained man on our shores can be found in every part of our history. It is more than a secret passageway or a photograph of a brutally whipped man’s scarred back in a book. It is more than redlining, Jim Crow, or a poll tax at the voting booth. Ignoring it, redefining it, or erasing it from history books or museum walls does not change the truth of it. But it creates a generation of parents, teachers, and lawmakers who cannot learn from it. 

At the Korematsu Institute, we believe that words matter, history matters, and we believe in the power of education to bring about meaningful change. This Black History Month, we find heritage month celebrations, historic milestones by people of color, and parts of our harder history being erased. It is our responsibility to preserve both the highlights and the low points, the full, rich, and sometimes painful history of our country, for the next generation and the promise they hold. This is about all of us.