So February is over. Does America feel more informed about black history since 28 days ago?

Does it ever at this time of year? Or, to the extent that America is informed about the history of black people this week, is it any more so than it was last September, or last Thanksgiving or last, say, May 21? Assuming, for a moment, that America was about as informed about black history last May 21 as it is this week -- and let's face it, it is -- to what extent is that due to anything that happened during Black History Month this year? Or any year, at least lately?

Yes, I am going to suggest that Black History Month has outlived its usefulness, as have many others. I suggest governments let go of the genuflective proclamations, and that schools not pay special attention to black history in February, as opposed to year-round. Note: I'm writing about its current "usefulness." The point is not that Black History Month never should have existed, nor that black history isn't important.

More specifically, I submit: Black history is no longer meaningfully neglected by mainstream America. We must be realistic about what it would mean for America to acknowledge the role blacks have played in America's history and let go of Black History Month: Surely, we are not waiting for all Americans to be able to do mini-recitations of the histories of A. Philip Randolph and Phyllis Wheatley, or be cognizant of the fact that there was slavery in New York City.

After all, this is a country where we regularly hear complaints that mainstream Americans barely know facts such as when the Revolutionary War was. The question is whether mainstream America has incorporated a basic awareness of black history into the hazy mental filmstrip of the national historical consciousness. From what I see, it has.

We can take it as far back as 15 years for evidence. It was, as they say, the little things that told the story. A traveling museum exhibit of the Henrietta Marie slave-ship artifacts was launched in 1995 and broke attendance records in 20 cities over the next decade. The organizers of a 2001 centennial celebration of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., highlighted the racially discriminatory side of the original event.