Last month, I realized with a sense of doom that Black History Month was rapidly approaching. I knew that I had to address the month on Stereohyped, but I had no idea how to do it in a way that wouldn’t be completely trite. That’s where the doom came in. I figured it I was going to participate in a month-long affair whose purpose many people — myself included, sometimes — question, I should at least learn something in the process. So I decided to write a daily post that highlighted a figure in black history (usually Black American history) that got glazed over when historians decided who would and wouldn’t become bold names in our text books, and crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t come across as totally cheesy, uncharacteristically earnest, and boring. Well, it was often cheesy and uncharacteristically earnest, but the reception from you all, not to mention other bloggers, has been overwhelmingly positive. And I swear I wouldn’t have gotten through the month if it weren’t for your helpful suggestions.

From posts about sport figures like Josh Gibson and Wilma Rudolph, to quirky inventors like Jan Matzeliger and Garrett Morgan, to brave politicians like John Mercer Langston and Robert Smalls, to remarkably-ahead-of-their time ladies like Bessie Coleman, Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Edmonia Lewis, and Katherine Dunham, to groundbreaking writers like William Wells Brown and Octavia Butler, the mini-profiles have been fun to put together, not to mention enlightening. But, although I wish I could sustain this indefinitely, all good things must come to an end.

Until Feb ‘09!