June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

• Author: Nelson, Claire A.
• Position: VIEWPOINT

With US Senate approval on February 14, 2006, and a presidential proclamation on June 5, 2006, June has become National Caribbean-American Heritage Month. And so the Caribbean "colonization" of the United States has been recorded in US history. This bill, first introduced in the House in 2004 by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, celebrates the contribution of Caribbean-Americans to American life and culture.

About time! Caribbean people--from Alexander Hamilton, a founding father and the first Secretary of the Treasury; to Jean Baptiste Pont du Sable, the founder of the trading post we now know as Chicago; to the Rt. Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the founder of the largest Black movement in America and the world--have been coming here by the thousands and hundreds of thousands since the 1600s. "We kinda people" have been here creating America in a myriad of ways. "We too sing America."

Since I began leading the campaign for a Caribbean-American Heritage Month some seven years ago, I have often been asked why such a month is needed. There are at least three reasons: it gives visibility; it gives voice; and it gives agency.

Visibility establishes who we are. It supports the naming of the Caribbean identity in America; it gives context to our being and history to our belonging. The history of America is inextricably linked to the history of the Caribbean region. From John Russworm, publisher of the first Black newspaper, Freedoms Journal, in 1827, to poet and writer of the Black National Anthem, James Weldon Johnson, Caribbean-Americans have played a historic role in shaping the ideals and values of this nation. More visibility is necessary to bring to light the intimate historic relationships that have existed since the first slaves were transported from the breeding grounds of Bridgetown, Barbados to Charleston, South Carolina. Some people think it strange that I say we need visibility, when the streets of Brooklyn are practically paved with patties and rotis and there is hardly a city or town in America where the music of Bob Marley is not revered. But the fact remains that in the myth that is America's founding story, the Caribbean-American is invisible. In claiming our presence, in defining ourselves as Caribbean-American, we take note of what we are and what we have created in the world, in order to define the way we want to see ourselves and be seen.

The second reason is voice. Voice is critical in the formation of a democracy that...