Is Black History Month still needed?

Calls for an end to Black History Month are nothing new. Even its creator, Carter G. Woodson, didn't intend for it to last forever. His goal was to ensure that the accomplishments of black Americans were celebrated, and eventually worked into school curriculums as part of general American history that's taught every day.

So, are we there yet? The answer to that question, depends on who you ask. Celebrated black actor Morgan Freeman seems to think we are (hear more of his comments from a 60 Minutes interview in the podcast below).

Our exploration of that question, which we recorded and present on this page, led us to ask even more questions that were pivotal to the ultimate answer: Are we truly post-racial? In a society that seems more fraught with racial tensions today than in decades, how do we explain the election of President Obama as a point of progress? Voter turnout? In 2012, blacks surpassed whites at the polls for the first time in U.S. history. That is, the percentage of likely black voters exceeded the percentage of likely voters among non-Hispanic whites. But we also know that whites helped put Obama in office in large numbers. How can this seeming contradiction be true?

We also questioned and explored the influence of implicit racial bias in America with filmmakers Llew Smith and Christine Herbes-Sommers, directors of the PBS documentary American Denial. We even took the same implicit bias test featured in the documentary. Curious about your own hidden biases? Take the test here.

As this year's Black History Month celebration comes to a close, we ask: Should it end for good? Hear the opinions of politicos, scholars, activists and artists in the podcast below: