Each February, as we celebrate African American History Month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson must smile. I suspect, however, that his heavenly smile retains the subtle, ironic twist revealed in his old photographs. Like all African Americans, the man who campaigned to establish a Negro History Week in our schools and became known as "the father of Black History" was well acquainted with irony.

Isn't it ironic that Americans should need to be reminded of the contributions of a people who built so much of this country and who continue to do most of the heavy lifting? In an America which pledged itself at the outset to create "one people out of many," isn't it ironic that the struggle for racial justice would ignite our most devastating civil war, create our most world-renowned man of peace and remain our most divisive issue?

There is a purpose to the historical questions we ask ourselves and the rest of America every February, but the objective of our questioning is not to be found in the past. African American History Month, like all Socratic inquiries, directs our attention to the ironies of our past condition in order to discover the truth about America's future.

One of those questions is crucial. As a people who pride ourselves on the historic strength of our community, African Americans must be troubled by the question posed by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"How can we have achieved the largest black middle class in our history," he asks us, "while nearly one-half of all African American children continue to live in poverty?"

A country which seeks to be peaceful, prosperous and free needs more than one special month each year devoted to answering Dr. Gates' question about success and poverty in black America. What our annual February celebration does provide, however, is a very necessary reminder that the American Dream - freedom, domestic peace and universal access to opportunity - is a package.

History reminds us that ours is a country constructed upon a moral imperative. Liberty, security and opportunity can be ignored for some Americans only at everyone's peril.

Although some may question the need for an African American History Month, every African American knows better. We recall the time when black children were excluded by law from good schools and consigned to drudgery and servitude.

We would like to say to ourselves, "Thank God, children in America are not denied their futures like that anymore." The failures which dominate too many school performance reports, however, and the young faces which stare blankly from our city street corners remind us that injustice is not yet an American memory.

America has yet to protect the civil rights of all of its children. Most American children living in poverty today are white, not black, but the history of black children in America is a beacon which illuminates the source of all American poverty.

In 1954, Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education established that education is so crucial to a fair chance at the American Dream that racially segregated schools could not be tolerated. Today, Maryland’s Constitution, like that of almost every other state, guarantees "a free and efficient system of public education" to every child. Most Americans understand that a good education is the key to their children's future.

Why then are so many of our schools failing basic performance tests? Most of the children suffering from the widespread educational failure are white, not black, but when children - whatever their racial heritage - are denied the education they will need to survive in our competitive world, the lessons of African American history suddenly become very relevant.

Blame games over who is responsible for America’s educational failures are inevitable, but such debates overlook a fundamental point. We all are responsible for the welfare of the children in our communities. African American history teaches us that education is not a privilege. Education is a civil right.

Our courts have been reluctant to enforce directly the civil right to an "effective" education. Courts seldom have required either Congress or our state legislatures to allocate the funds needed to provide the comprehensive educational opportunity to which every American child is entitled.

Our history also teaches us, however, that the courts will enforce our constitutional right and power to choose legislators who will support effective education for all children (and to remove those who refuse to support this civil right).

During this session of Congress, the funding authorization for most federal aid to elementary and secondary education will expire and must be renewed. The Congress will debate how Washington most effectively can play its essential role in educating the poor children of America. At issue will be programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and related statutes.

Schools serving disadvantaged children currently receive 60% of the $14.5 billion in federal aid appropriated for FY 1999 educational programs. If the people’s representatives are prepared to make equal educational opportunity a reality, the federal funds devoted to educating poor children must be increased dramatically.

Every American should pay very close attention to the education debates of 1999. Reasonable people may differ on some of the details, but it is time for the Congress to allow Dr. Woodson’s spirit to smile without irony.