Let's talk about black history

Black History Month is a time to remember important people and events in black history. Watch the video to find out more about it.

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Transcript

So, yeah, Marcus Garvey. Influential black history figure.

What's black history?

This is a Jamaican football shirt. Do you know what's special about this football shirt? 

No.

So this football shirt is special because this is the football shirt that the Jamaican team wore when they went to the Football World Cup in 1998. So that was in France and it was the first time Jamaica ever went to the World Cup. And it was a really good time because you had a lot of people in England, in Jamaica, in America and all over the world supporting Jamaica.

When I was growing up, one of the figures that I used to hear about a lot, for, like, in black history was a man called Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Marcus Garvey. Uh, my dad was a Rastafarian, uh, was or is, uh, and Marcus Garvey's philosophy was one of the things that black people used to galvanise around. Around self-reliance. He was a businessman. Um, he created a ship or he had his own ship called 'The Black Star Liner'. And, yeah, he was a very … 

Star Liner.

Say 'black'.

Black Sky Liner.

Touch.

There's a month called Black History Month in October. And Grandad Edwin would tell me about people I could look up to. So for you, I think there's a few people you could look up to. Do you know Barack Obama?

Black History is a time in the month that the UK give us to talk about black history, but it's deeper than that.

Black?

It means about …

Black people. Yeah, it's black people's history. 

Like, like, somebody called Rosie Parks. 

Rosa Parks. How do you know about Rosa Parks? 

She went on a bus.

Yeah …

And she sat on the bus and this person told her to sit at the back and the man said it's against the law and then she didn't do what she was told. And she said she was tired and 'I'm sitting here.' And then, and then, and then, somebody arrested, the police arrested her.

Wow. There was two key people in that time. A guy called Martin Luther King, Dr Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks. And Rosa Parks said 'Enough is enough.' And that actually changed a whole lot of laws and stuff in history, so I'm really glad you know that.

What do you want to be when you grow older? 

A fashion designer.

Wow, OK.

An optician.

An optician.

And I want to be the first person to clear away pain. 

Clear away pain. Why's that?

It's not good that people have pain. 

So you want to take it away. Wow.

So I think it's important you remember that you can, if you try anything hard, really hard, you try your hardest, and do the best in everything you can do, one day you could be the top of the world and do things.

You're going to be the best at what you want to be.

Thank you, Dad.

I am very, very proud of you, OK? And I love you very much. Give me a big hug.

© BBC

Discussion

Which important black history figures do you know about?

Average: 3.7 (7 votes)

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