Today kicks off Black History Month, and Americans have plenty to celebrate.

Rewind to March 2010, and black unemployment is 16.8 percent with the country just emerging from the Great Recession. As late as 2015, black unemployment hovered above 10 percent. It has steadily declined, dipping below 7 percent in December. This is great news for everyone, and let’s hope the trend continues.

When America suffers, black people suffer. When black people suffer, all other Americans feel it.

Most Americans know about the country’s dubious history with slavery, segregation and racism. We know about Martin Luther King Jr., famous civil rights marches, school segregation, Jim Crow laws and an assortment of other injustices Americans fought to overcome and continue battling today.

Much progress has been made; much lies ahead.

In celebrating Black History Month, we should remember the struggle while highlighting the economic and cultural triumphs of black Americans we would not wish to live without.

Americans of all ethnicities would not recognize this country without the disproportionately positive contributions of African-American laborers, entrepreneurs, investors, inventors, politicians and business leaders.

In 2013, the net income of black Americans collectively topped $1 trillion.

“That market is larger than the market for the entire nation of Spain,” explains historian Robert E. Weems, distinguished professor of business history at Wichita State University, in an article for BlackPast.org.

Famous black athletes, civil rights leaders, major inventors and entertainers make up an obvious part of history. Far less apparent are the more silent contributions too few associate with African-American success.

They are too numerous to do justice with a list, but here’s a modest sample:

Voluminous books could not exhaust examples of black Americans improving lives of everyone else with little fanfare. Innovation and success move this country forward and are the key to better lives for people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Black history is American history, and today begins a month of recognition and gratitude.