Black History is American History. As much as the story of the Pilgrims, the Alamo and any of the other stories of events or heroes we teach our children about. January to June and July to December, we should recognize the triumphs and tragedies of our fellow Americans as they happened. And the stories of exceptional black Americans should take their rightful place alongside the other giants of their time, and not as mere asterisks lumped together. Just as Major League Baseball recently corrected its records by including players from the Negro Leagues in the official stats of the game.
A new report from the acting inspector general says "data quality issues" affect the "objectivity, utility and integrity" of the information used to allocate resources, measure employee performance and monitor a host of programs.