It's Black History Month once again and MomsRising is celebrating with a blog carnival that will bring you a diverse selection of voices and perspectives to deepen our collective appreciation of this time. Some might ask why, in this era of a Black president and televised public funerals of Black musical icons, we still need a Black History Month. Aren't we past that? Isn't Black history being made all around us?

My answer is that ultimately, Black History Month is a chance to review who we are as a nation from a different angle. Black History Month belongs to all of us. It is, in fact, our shared history. For example, if not for Black History Month, when might you learn about Lewis Latimer, son of a slave who was so talented an engineer, that he worked alongside both Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, helping them achieve their signature inventions of the telephone and the light bulb? Knowing more about Latimer teaches us something, too, about those groundbreaking scientists Bell and Edison -- at a time when too many chose to see Blacks as inferior in intellect, their brilliance extended beyond the science to the social.

Similarly, what woman cannot be inspired by the story of Harriet Tubman (from whom I took my nom de guerre at JackandJillPolitics.com -- Jill Tubman) -- slave, savior and spy? Tubman rescued her entire family from slavery -- parents, nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers along with many more -- despite suffering from a debilitating brain injury. She worked as a nurse and a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War and was a tireless fighter for the right of women to vote in America. We can all put ourselves in her shoes and marvel at the courage, compassion and determination of this diminutive heroine and mother -- all of 5 feet tall.

Today, we've come so far from the dark days of slavery and civil war. Yet the legacy of inequity remains a challenge we must overcome as one society working together. According to the National Poverty Center:

The poverty rate for all persons masks considerable variation between racial/ethnic subgroups. Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12.1 percent of Asians.

Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. In 2010, 31.6 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 15.8 percent of households headed by single men and 6.2 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty.

Black families are more likely to be headed by a single woman and are more likely to be poor, according to the last Census in 2010. From The Root:

Nearly one out of every three black households (29 percent) are headed by a single woman, the highest percentage of female-headed households in the U.S....

The annual median income of black households in 2008 is $34,218, a decline of 2.8 percent (in 2008 constant dollars) from 2007. It’s the lowest in the United States.

Black median family income was just over $41,000 in 2008, the lowest in the United States of any racial group. A single black woman with children earned a median annual income of $25,958.

No surprise then that one out of five black families lives in poverty. More than 40 percent of black families headed by a single mom are poor.

This terrible inequity means that black families are less likely to have paid sick days, less likely to have access to affordable housing and adequate healthcare and more likely to be unemployed in a tough economy. Black unemployment remains twice that of whites despite our proven willingness to work hard and serve our country. Black women now represent a third of all the women in the armed forces, a rate twice their percentage in the civilian population. And more military veterans are black than of any other racial group.

We must all work to close these inequities because to do so is to live the example of Lewis Latimer and Harriet Tubman, who saw closed doors and worked to open them -- not just for themselves but for all Americans. On behalf of MomsRising, I hope that this year's Black History Month blog carnival inspires you -- whoever you are -- to higher heights.