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USA Today
28-02-2025
- General
- USA Today
February is Black History Month. Here's the history behind the celebration
February is Black History Month. Here's the history behind the celebration Show Caption Hide Caption Black History Month's historical origins explained Here's why the founder Carter G. Woodson created Black History Month and how it's different today than he originally planned. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY Saturday marks the start of Black History Month, a time to honor Black people and the Black experience. And while Black History celebrations have been held for decades, some people may not realize how this month-long celebration began. It all started with a scholar named Carter G. Woodson, who founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in 1915 to research, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about Black life. Greg Carr, an associate professor in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C., said that Woodson founded the organization while he was a graduate student. In February 1926, Woodson started Negro History Week, and after university students and staff pushed to extend the celebration, it evolved into Black History Month as it is currently recognized in the United States. What led to the start of Black History Month, and why February? Born in Virginia, Woodson was the second African American to receive a PhD from Harvard and the first to earn a PhD from Harvard born to enslaved parents, according to Carr. Woodson was made an honorary member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity on Feb. 10, 1917, and in 1924, members of the fraternity, called Ques, launched the Negro History and Literature Week, according to Carr. 'Dr. Woodson kind of seized upon his membership in Omega Psi Phi and his determination to link the study of our history to communities,' Carr said. 'He recruited the Omegas into helping him establish what he called Negro History Week, which emerged a couple of years later.' He chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because of its link to Abraham Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12 and Frederick Douglass' birthday or Douglass Day, which falls on Feb. 14. Students at Black and white colleges demanded Negro History Week extension Woodson is credited as the 'Father of Black History,' according to ASALH. He died of a heart attack in 1950, but even after his death, community members demanded a continuation of the celebration he created. Black History Month really took off in the 1960s during the Black Power movement, said Carr. Students on college campuses such as Howard University, Tuskegee University in Alabama, and Kent State University in Ohio pushed for a more inclusive curriculum, complete with African American and global Black history and culture, he said. 'At HBCUs like Howard and Tuskegee, they wanted the entire university to reorient itself around the concepts of Black history and culture,' he said. 'On white college campuses like Kent State, the students and some faculty administrators pushed for the celebration of (Negro History Week) to not only be elevated, but extended.' On the Kent State University Campus, a student-led organization called Black United Students (BUS) pushed to extend the entire month of February to celebrate Black history. The first observance of Black History Month took place at the university in 1970, according to Kent State University. The school eventually became known as the birthplace of Black History Month. President Gerald R. Ford recognized Black History Month on Feb. 10, 1976, according to the National Archives. A decade later, President Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5443, recognizing National Black (Afro-American) History Month in 1986. 'History had me glued to the seat' Wanting to ensure the full story of African American history, Woodson brought together scholars from all disciplines when he created ASALH, including historians, sociologists, political scientists, as well as those in humanities, according to Cassandra Newby-Alexander, founder of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University in Virginia. 'They [textbooks] were referencing slavery and people who were enslaved as if they were servants and members of the family, highlighting mythical stories about how tied in Black people were to white people,' she said. "He wanted to counter all that mythmaking so that the story of what really happened could be told and communicated to young people.' In addition to proposing Negro History Week, Woodson also developed curriculum materials in the 1930s, said Carr, from Howard University. His organization would send kits to teachers to celebrate. The kits included pictures, lessons for teachers, plays for historical performances and posters with notable dates and people, according to Harvard University. One student, Claudette Colvin, was enrolled in history classes at her high school, which later inspired her to make a life-altering decision, said Carr. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was just 15 years old and enrolled at Booker T. Washington High School in Montgomery, Alabama, reported the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY network. She was riding a bus when some white passengers boarded. By law, she was required to sit at the back of the bus, while white people sat at the front. The two racial divides were separated by a section called 'no man's land' in which Colvin and three other Black passengers sat. The white bus driver told the Black passengers to get up so the white people who'd just boarded could sit down. Although three riders moved to the back of the bus, Colvin stayed in her seat. 'I felt as though Harriet Tubman was pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth was pushing me down on the other,' she previously said. 'So, therefore, history had me glued to the seat. That was the reason I could not move.' Colvin was eventually taken to jail and charged with disorderly conduct, assault, and violating segregation laws. Activists protested, but she was found guilty at her first trial. On appeal, the judge dismissed the segregation and disorderly conduct charges, leaving the assault charge on her record. She was sentenced to indefinite probation until 2021, nearly 67 years after her 1955 arrest, a Montgomery Juvenile Court judge expunged her record. 'We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history' 'The Negro History Bulletin' was a newsletter published by Woodson's organization, ASALH. In March 1950, Woodson posthumously published an article describing how community members can celebrate Negro History Week, Carr said. In his article, Woodson wrote that oftentimes speakers invited to connect with students during Negro History Week have 'traditional discussion of the race problem and how it has been or can be solved,' but that's not all there is to discuss, he said. Woodson viewed Negro History Week as an opportunity for people to share what they've learned during the other 11 months of the year, Carr said. Newby-Alexander said that in some cases, Negro History Week marked the start of discussions on how communities were celebrating throughout the year. 'If you had a principal who was really involved in this, there were all kinds of images and things going on every week or every month that highlighted Black heroes, that had lessons talking about them, events in American history that were inclusive of Black people,' she said. 'This was unheard of in most of the school systems that were not Black.' In an earlier writing in 1943, Woodson himself wrote that 'what we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.' 'We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history,' he wrote. Contributing: Brian Lyman, The Montgomery Advertiser Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why is Black History Month in February?
(NewsNation) — The origin of Black History Month in America goes back more than 100 years. Some may wonder why February, the shortest month of the year, was chosen to be the month to celebrate Black history. Here is the origin of Black History Month and how it is celebrated each year. Black church's role in civil rights, social justice continues to grow According to the Library of Congress, the start of Black History Month dates back to 1915, when author and historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). It was through this organization that Woodson initiated the first 'Negro History Week' in 1926. Woodson chose a week in February since it coincided with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two key figures in Black American history. In 1975, President Gerald Ford issued a message recognizing the week and urged all Americans to 'recognize the important contribution made to our nation's life and culture by black citizens.' The following year in 1976, ASALH extended the commemoration from a weeklong observation to an entire month. In 1986, Congress passed Public Law 99-244, which designated February 1986 as 'National Black (Afro-American) History Month.' The law recognized Feb. 1 of that year as the start of the 60th annual public and private salute to Black history. Afterschool program uplifting Chicago students' voices through music Each year, the ASALH chooses a theme for Black History Month, which is a practice Woodson started. This year's theme is 'African Americans and Labor.' According to the organization, the theme focuses on the types of labor African Americans have provided throughout the country's history, which includes 'free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary.' The theme aims to inspire reflections on the connections between the work of Black individuals and their various workplaces, highlighting significant moments, themes and events in Black history and culture across time and geography. Since 1996, presidents have issued annual proclamations for National Black History Month, and in February of 1996, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 229, commemorating the month and the contributions of Black senators. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How students drove the creation of Black History Month
'If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.' — Carter G. Woodson I began with a quote from Dr. Woodson because I want readers to know who he was and what motivated him to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become Black History Month, first celebrated at Kent State University. Woodson established what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915 along with William D. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, Alexander L. Jackson and James E. Stamps. In January 1916, he began publication of what is now The Journal of African American History. In 1926, he pioneered the celebration of Negro History Week during the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is important to understand that Woodson was operating during a period of rising Black self-consciousness that was being expressed in movements such as the Harlem/New Negro Renaissance and by Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. I arrived at Kent State University as a first-year student in September 1970 on the day campus reopened after the shootings that previous May and two years after Black United Students (BUS) walked off campus in protest demanding what is now the Department of Africana Studies and the Center of Pan-African Culture (CPAC). I was a naïve, wide-eyed and anxious 18-year-old. I remember being swept up into BUS and being groomed by upperclassmen who had participated in the 1968 'walkout.' I was mesmerized and in absolute awe of the militant group spirit they exuded. When Dwayne White (aka Ibrahim Al-Khafiz) and Carl Gregory (aka Saiti Dihati) approached Dr. Edward Crosby, director of the Institute for African American Affairs (IAAA), and Dr. Milton Wilson, the dean for Human Relations, to propose that programming for Negro History Week be extended throughout the month of February, BUS was acting in concert with a larger Black student/Black studies movement that was sweeping the country at that time. Like Woodson before them, they believed, 'Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.' A case can be made that the civil rights and Black consciousness movements inspired other marginalized groups in the United States to awaken and to claim their legitimate places in this society. The celebrations of women's history, Native American heritage and Hispanic heritage are not coincidental. At Kent State, students can now engage the Women's Center, the E. Timothy Moore Student Multicultural Center and the LGBTQ+ Center. The Department of Africana Studies (formerly the IAAA) and the Center of Pan-African Studies are housed in Oscar Ritchie Hall — named after KSU's first African American professor. It can also be argued that the current 'Make America Great Again' culture war is designed to roll back the social progress that has been achieved over the last 55 years. Race is still the elephant in the room. The weaponization of ignorance is the real danger in these treacherous yet exciting times. The fabricated battle over critical race theory, the banning of books, the attack on African American history in Florida and assaults on 'too woke' colleges, DEI initiatives and the fundamentals of academic freedom are being waged to conserve an archaic status quo that was never intended to embrace 21st century American realities. For those BUS students who transformed Negro History Week into Black History Month in February 1970, Woodson's book, 'The Mis-Education of the Negro,' was an strong influence. He wrote: '… [T]aught the same economics, history, philosophy, literature and religion which have established the present code of morals, the Negro's mind has been brought under the control of his oppressor. The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved.' For us, the study of the history and contributions of Africans, not only here in America but throughout the world, was the real point. Our quest was to acquire a true education that would help us to become better human beings and to achieve what the Yoruba people of West Africa call 'Iwa-Pele,' which means 'good and gentle character.' Embracing Black History Month can help this nation to learn about major chapters of the true story of how America became great. Black life does matter. Professor Mwatabu S. Okantah is chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Kent State University. This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: How, where and why Black History Month started | Opinion
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
KCAU 9's Honoring Black History special
KCAU 9 is celebrating the highlighting siouxland's African-American history-makers of Siouxland, both past and present with a Honoring Black History Special. Watch a replay of KCAU 9's Honoring Black History special in the player above. While Black History Month was first designated in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, the history of the month dates back almost a century, and the way it is celebrated and evolved has created history in itself. Black History Month wasn't always a monthlong celebration. Historian and author Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week in February 1926. The weeklong celebration efforted to teach people about African-American history and the contributions of Black people. This effort was made under the umbrella of an organization he founded in September 1915 called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or ASALH. Why is Black History Month the shortest of the year? The celebratory week was set in February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln. Douglass, whose birthday is Feb. 14, was an escaped slave and influential abolitionist. His 1845 autobiography is still taught in U.S. schools today. Lincoln, born Feb. 12, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people free in the Confederate states. After Woodson passed away in 1950, the members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, which Dr. Woodson was a member of, did a lot of groundwork to encourage celebrating the week. The fraternity was also responsible for the push to extend the celebrations to a full month. Eventually, in 1976, President Gerald Ford became the first president to issue a message recognizing the month. Stories highlighting local impacts can be found below. The Sioux City Ghosts softball team entertained crowds from Iowa to the west coast, Canada and Mexico from 1925 to 1956. They were dubbed the 'Harlem Globetrotters' of softball. Click here to read the full story. Sandra Pearson and her husband Andrew have dedicated their free time to bringing unity and harmony to Siouxland. While some may not have heard about the MLK choir, it's been around for over 40 years. Click here to read the full story. Black-owned businesses are thriving across America, and the same is true in Siouxland. While some are home-grown, others are adding to our culinary landscape with recipes form afar. Click here to read the full story. For more stories about Black History Month, visit our Honoring Black History page. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Leonard Greene: Trump trashes equity and diversity as he issues proclamation honoring Black History Month
Make up your mind, already. On the one hand, you want to eliminate everything that has anything to do with equity and diversity, including any acknowledgment of months that celebrate cultural heritage. Then, on the other hand, you want to wish us a happy Black History Month. Well, too late. 'This National Black History Month, as America prepares to enter a historic Golden Age, I want to extend my tremendous gratitude to black Americans for all they have done to bring us to this moment, and for the many future contributions they will make as we advance into a future of limitless possibility under my Administration,' President Donald Trump said in a proclamation. Trump went on to cite abolitionist Frederick Douglass, freedom fighter Harriett Tubman, economist Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and professional golfer Tiger Woods as examples of Black people who 'represent what is best in America and her citizens.' There used to be a saying Black people employed to sarcastically acknowledge underwhelming acts of generosity and recognition: 'That's mighty white of you.' I give you Trump. The last thing Black people need is for Trump to be picking out our heroes, especially if they have names like Clarence Thomas. Scratch that. That's the next to last thing we need. The truly last thing we need is for Trump to undo all the progress and contributions we have made to American society. Trump's Black History Month proclamation came on the heels of a Department of Defense announcement that it would no longer recognize or celebrate months dedicated to specific cultural or gender identities. Gone, according to a memo, are Women's History Month, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Service members will be able to observe such commemorations on their own time. Again, mighty white of them. Many conspiracy theorists have complained about Black history being relegated to the calendar's shortest month. But it was nothing quite as sinister as that. Black History Month actually began as Negro History Week in 1926 when historian Carter G. Woodson and others pushed to set aside time to celebrate and promote Black history and achievement. They suggested the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation executive order that freed American slaves. Nationwide, schools and communities joined in and organized local celebrations, established history clubs and hosted performances and lectures. These celebrations continued for decades, gaining momentum in the 1960s, thanks to the Civil Rights Movement and by the late 1960s, thanks to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. By the 1970s, Negro History Week evolved into Black History Month. Republican President Gerald Ford was the first president to recognize Black History Month in 1976. Ford called upon the public to 'seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.' Woodson had put it another way. 'If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,' Woodson said. So, is Black History Month history going forward? That remains unclear. But current festivities going on this month at the National Park Service and other government institutions are sure to eventually raise the question among Trump and his supporters about the need for a Black History Month. They will remind us that there has never been a month, or even a day set aside to celebrate the achievements and history of white people in America. Of course, they would be wrong. Those set-aside times are just called something different. They have names like April, May, July and August — and every day that ends with a 'Y.' _____
