Black History Month is observed every February, but many people are not familiar with how or why it was created. To understand why it was created, we have to look back to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. As the son of formerly enslaved parents and the second Black American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, Woodson was a historian and familiar with how Black Americans were being left out of the narrative of American History. The American Historical Association had no interest in Black history. Woodson was a dues paying member but was not allowed to attend conferences.
Because the contributions of Black people were left out of history textbooks, it was thought that Black people never contributed to the progress of mankind. It was his goal to change that.
In 1915, Dr. Woodson and other Black Americans gathered in Chicago to participate in the state’s national celebration of the Lincoln Jubilee and half-century of emancipation. The small gathering had a high purpose: the creation of an organization to demonstrate to the world a truth , people of African descent had contributed significantly to the making of civilization and the movement of human history.
Eleven years later, in 1926, Negro History Week was born. Woodson made a calculated decision to begin this week in February because it included the birthdays of two vital change agents, President Lincoln, celebrated for The Emancipation Proclamation and the abolitionist and formerly enslaved, Frederick Douglass.
Woodson understood the need for Black Americans to know their own history beyond the centuries of forced servitude. He also knew people who were not of African descent needed to know how much stronger and better the country is because of the efforts of many Black Americans. Negro History Week gave Black Americans a history to be proud of and made sure the role of Black people in American history was acknowledged.
In 1969, Kent State’s Black United Students (BUS) organization, with support from campus educators in African American Studies, began to advocate for the entire month of February to be celebrated as Black History Month. After a year of planning, the first observance in the nation took place on campus at Kent State in 1970. It would take another six years before there was a national designation of Black History Month.
In 1976, President Ford urged Americans to observe this special month. In 1986, Congress designated February as National Black History Month. With the federal government’s blessing, Black History Month became a regular event in American schools and communities.
Since that time, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history.
Today, it’s an annual celebration of achievements and contributions by Black Americans, and a time for recognizing our central role in U.S. history. It’s a special tribute, a time of acknowledgment, reflection, and inspiration that comes to life in real and ongoing activities. This powerful symbolic celebration is conveyed through literature, the visual arts, history, and music.
What is the reason to celebrate Black History?
Dr. Woodson said,
“No one can be thoroughly educated until he learns as much about the Negro as he knows about other people.”- Dr. Carter G. Woodson
No one makes history all by themselves. It’s a time to recognize Black Americans who contributed to impactful growth and change. We celebrate Black Americans from the past, present, and those who will influence the future.
As we know, the accomplishments of Black Americans are not always known. Black children need to see models of greatness that look like them and see them celebrated. Our children deserve to have an education that imparts honesty about who we are.
Black History Month offers an opportunity to reimagine what possibilities are ahead of us!
Why should we revisit a path with pain, anguish, guilt, and embarrassment? Why should we study a history a history filled with such tragedy?
There’s no question about it, our U.S. History is complex and painful to revisit. To heal, we must learn from our past errors and appreciate those who are different.
Reconciliation requires truth telling even if the truth contradicts our assumptions about the past. To heal wounds from our country’s past; we must honestly address it, no matter how disturbing or difficult.
We gain inspiration and guidance from the past. Dr. King and many other civil rights activists (who were of all ages, gender, and races) contributed to Black history in the fight for justice and equality.
History does not only tell us about our past but also enables us to understand ourselves better as individuals, family, and community. It teaches us to appreciate our common heritage, and what we understand as our cultural and social diversity. This understanding should guide us in the process of planning for the future.
Black people were the only people legally enslaved and segregated on American soil. We had a visible mark, it’s called our skin color.
Black Americans have managed, out of the most inhumane circumstances, to make an impact and contribute not only to our culture but our democracy.
Black people achieved triumphs, successes, and progress as seen in the end of chattel slavery, restrictive Black codes, sharecropping, dismantling legal segregation and racist Jim Crow laws, increased political representation, desegregation of schools and public places, passage of voter’s rights acts, and multiple civil rights acts.
Facing the truth liberates us to build the society we wish to be.
This month is also about getting closer to our roots by acknowledging and highlighting the pioneers who came before us. It means to look at our past, present, and future as a collective and continuing the work our ancestors has started.
What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but a history void of national bias, racial and religious prejudices.
Francie Mae. February 9, 2023
References
Carter G. Woodson, Wikipedia. Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson
Accessed February 8, 2023.
Woodson, Carter G. 1933. Republished 1998. The Mis-Education Of The Negro. Trenton, New Jersey. Africa World Press, Inc.