statist vs. market versions of Black History Month

From Marvin Olasky in World...

Oscar Stanton De Priest (1871-1951) was the first African-American elected to Congress in the 20th century. Like Barack Obama, he rose through Chicago machine politics. Unlike Obama, De Priest was a Republican firmly opposed to big government....

Schoolroom and media accounts during February's Black History Month celebrate big-government proponents but generally ignore fighters for individual liberty like De Priest, NAACP co-founder Moorfield Storey, Howard University dean Kelly Miller, and novelist Zora Neale Hurston....

Jonathan Bean's Race & Liberty in America points out that "academic booklists reflect the politically correct view that left-wing liberals or radicals completely dominated the struggle for racial freedom." Bean's excellent book shows that many African-American leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries had a different emphasis. Those leaders prized individual rights, Christianity, and markets where the only color is the green of greenbacks. Those leaders knew that government power enforced racist codes and segregation...

Sounds like a book to check out!