WHAT do elevators, guitars, refrigerators, peanut butter and traffic lights have in common?

True, along with electric light bulbs, lawn mowers, fire extinguishers and bicycle frames, they are items that we could not imagine life without.

More importantly though, they were all invented by black people.

Now, these may just sound like random pub facts, but it is exactly the sort of information that will become the talk of the town over the coming weeks.

National Black History Month has become a familiar fixture on Southampton's social calendar over the last five years.

The initiative is designed not only to promote black history but also to increase black people's confidence and awareness of their own cultural heritage.

This month people will once again be encouraged to celebrate the diversity of cultures within Southamp-ton's black communities.

Events The highlights of a schedule packed full of events, exhibitions, film showings, include:

  • A Racism Just Ain't Saintly' day event with Saints entertaining Stoke in a Championship match at St Mary's on October 21.
  • A multi-cultural street party organised by Cantell School.
  • Chances to find out more about the culinary delights of the Caribbean at a Southampton restaurant.
  • Exhibitions exploring the city's involvement with slavery and Southampton FC's long history of association with black footballers.
  • An innovative new presentation entitled The Hidden Music of Black Musicians in Classical Music.

"It is not about saying that our culture is any better than others, but it is about saying that it is one of the many fine cultures that makes Southampton what it is," said Don John, one of the city's leading organisers of Black History Month.

"It is an opportunity to put to the forefront a number of things taking place in the community that otherwise might have been unrecognised."

The race development officer, who has worked in various posts at the city council for 20 years, added: "For black communities we still have the legacy of some of the stereotypes that black people were faced with in the 1960s and 70s.

"We still have that to deal with that, but I think black people are now featured much more in some areas of work and some areas of life in which they weren't featured before.

"With those that have succeeded we have got to recognise them more as being able to demonstrate to those who don't succeed that they too can get there."

New arrivals Southampton's relationship with black people goes back hundreds of years, and today the city has a significant population of African origin.

This includes people who settled here from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 1960s and their families.

More recently the city's black population has further diversified with people from various parts of Africa settling in the city.

They include new arrivals from Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Organisers believe that learning from the past through Black History Month will unlock a crucial way for many young people to understand the present and the future.

A key part of the scheme is education with schools, colleges and universities heavily involved in promoting the message behind it.

"A lot of people who are second and third generation have forgotten what the past was," said Don.

"It is not a criticism but they probably have no idea about the problems that their relatives who came here on the boats faced.

"People experienced things then that black people would not even think of tolerating today."