By Paul Von Blum For many years, I have dutifully accepted
invitations to speak at various gatherings about African-
American history and culture during Black History Month in
February. After all, I am a curiosity, even an “exotic,” as a
non-African-American teaching African-American Studies at UCLA.
Frequently, I used my presentations to offer a personal
perspective as a veteran of the civil rights movement, giving my
college, high school and community audiences a chance to talk to
someone who had been on the front lines of the struggle for
racial justice in the South and California during the 1960s. On
other occasions, I took the opportunity to correct various
historical superficialities and misimpressions, especially among
younger crowds. For example, I often explained that Rosa Parks
had been a committed social activist, not an “older lady” who
was too tired to move to the back of the bus, and that President
John F. Kennedy had a less stellar record on civil rights than
many romanticized accounts suggested