After a particularly inspired night of playing his harmonica in Nashville on the WSM Barn Dance show, legendary musician DeFord Bailey inspired host George Hay to declare the show from that moment forward "The Grand Ole Opry."

For 15 years afterward, Bailey became one of the most popular performers on the very radio program that made country music the enduring and popular genre it IS today.

PS: He was black.

In this week's Decoded, host Franchesca Ramsey leads an unsuspecting fellow through the world of black innovations after he wonders aloud why there's no "white history month."

Ramsey shows him that in addition to modern shoemaking techniques and potato chips, black folk have helped advance cell phone tech and had a hand in the creation of country music.

While most contributors to the a genre are generally thought of as white, writer Dahleen Glanton pointed out in the Chicago Tribune that "to many African-Americans who grew up on country, recognition of the hundreds of blacks who contributed to the creation and growth of the country-music genre has been too slow in coming."

Of course, Black History Month isn't here to say that black people are solely to thank for a certain whiskey-loving crooner or the entire genre -- just to acknowledge that they played a significant part in country music's creation and enduring popularity.

The whole point of Black History Month is to highlight those who have gone overlooked in the history books. There's a reason you know more about Elvis Presley than Muddy Waters or Arthur Crudup.

Watch the full video below.