Since its inception, the Basketball Hall of Fame has systematically ignored the courageous innovations of countless men and women from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). But now, finally, under pressure -- and due in part to the influence of new Hall of Fame board chairman Mannie Jackson -- the Hall has agreed to form a special committee to look into what needed to be done decades ago. It is not time to relax.

Even before embarking on this obvious step, Hall of Fame decision-makers took care of business as usual in 2008 by admitting, admitting, among others, long-time ESPN college basketball announcer Dick Vitale. The Hall includes more broadcasters with larger-than-life personalities -- not to mention individuals from Russia, Italy, Lithuania and Brazil -- than it does such deserved HBCU figures as Dick Barnett, Bob Hopkins, Ben Jobe, Fred Hobdy, Cleo Hill, Bob Love, Dave Whitney, Travis Grant, and on and on and on and on.

Alarmingly, some young black thinkers and Hall of Fame officials have recently propagated a point of view characterized by white smugness and black shame. If left unchallenged, there is a real danger of history once again being revised to defend and promote the status quo and yield to the political and lobbying efforts of the elite.

The revisionists understand that HBCU players and coaches faced vile psychological, economic and physical injustice for almost 50 years. But they agree that these old souls, many of whom have already passed on, should not seek the validation of an institution such as the Hall of Fame because they are not wanted. The revisionists have some existential belief that it's good enough for their elders to merely accept the fact that they "earned" admission. My friend Scoop Jackson described the situation as "an incomprehensible Catch-44, a place between vindication and validation, between a favor and a demand" in a recent a column.

There is no gray area of uncertainty. There is no favor to ask. Getting more HBCU players and coaches enshrined in the Hall of Fame should be a flat-out, 100 percent, straight on, straight out "demand."

Scoop wrote, "Sometimes, history belongs only to the people that produced it. Sometimes, the rest of the world doesn't deserve to share it. We didn't ask anything then. We should follow the same sense of pride now."

Unfortunately, history isn't so simple. All history is cause and effect, laws and disobedience, trial and error. Therefore, no one "people" produce or own any part of history by themselves. The outside world needs to know about the achievements, struggles, confrontations and triumphs of the HBCU world. If not, why do we even study African-American history? If not, why do we need more films, books, theater, art and dance about the African-American experience? We shouldn't demand less because we are in the world of sports. "We" is also a tricky concept. It implies the black experience is the same for all black people regardless of age, economics, gender, occupation, even skin tone.

HBCU basketball people never stopped asking. They asked to compete against white players; to eat, sleep and travel in the same facilities as white teams; to break the color barriers of the NCAA, NAIA, and NIT postseason tournaments; to coach at "majority institutions" and even to attend majority colleges. They viewed segregation as the evil act of the slave owner and prayed that integration would propel them in some way to a better future. They were part of demonstrations, sit-ins, marches and protests. Many were dreadfully humiliated, spat upon, beaten and denounced. They asked for something then. It's called dignity and recognition, and they deserve it now.

The organizers of this effort -- black journalists led by Greg Lee of the Boston Globe, black coaches spearheaded by Paul Hewitt, NBA vets and Hall of Famers such as Earl Monroe, Tom Hoover, Tiny Archibald and Len Elmore -- believe this is a simple matter of right versus wrong. Just as important, they realize that exclusion is a crime of conscience and a morally repugnant part of our collective history. To exclude means history books give children a distorted picture; historians and teachers subconsciously lie to students; and young minds unexposed to the realities of the past are less prepared for the present and the future.

Recognition is a natural character trait of everybody in the Western world, so now is not the time to let go, but rather a moment to attack.

Ask the men and women and families of HBCU players and coaches if they don't want to be admitted into the Hall of Fame. Similarly, ask the artists or filmmakers who spent years creating a picture of the ostracized black soldier, scholar, statesman, etc. if they would reject an Oscar, Emmy or Pulitzer nomination. You may find an individual who won't accept the honor, but you will never find anyone who believes he or she didn't deserve it.

The most egregious distortion of the apologists, however, was made by Hall of Fame president John Doleva, who at once seeks to take undeserved credit for the effort forcing the creation of the committee, and at the same time warns there will be "no lowering of the bar" in terms of who actually gets admitted. There is no bar. If there is, it has been broken, twisted, mangled and bent to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" for years and years. The new special committee must consist only of HBCU coaches, players, writers and scholars.

Scoop argued that it's time to stop begging because "the game knows." The game is not a human being with real feelings. The game is an abstract form of escape, of entertainment -- an activity, a business. The game doesn't connect to the experiences of Cal Irwin, Harold Hunter, Bob Dandridge, Howie Evans, Al Attles, Nelson Brownlee, Jack DeFares and countless others. You cannot touch and feel the game. You can, however, stop the hypocrisy and play to win. Let young people be exposed to acts of courage and allow the courageous to be honored.