Black History Month has been recognized every February for as long as many of us can remember, but very few are aware of how it all happened. For that, we have to go back to 1915 and a gentleman named Carter G. Woodson. A graduate of the University of Chicago with a doctorate from Harvard, it is known as “Father’s Month of Black History.”
During the summer of that year, he joined the emancipation commemoration in DC along with thousands of others and was so inspired that he helped establish the Association for the Study of Black Life and History (ASNLH). A year later, he founded The Diary of Black History. His mission: Promote the achievements of his people.
Seeking an even greater impact, in 1924 he and several friends created Black History and Literature Week, later renamed Black Achievement Week. This was followed by a press release announcing Black History Week to be held in February.
That month he was chosen in recognition of two influential men: Abraham Lincoln, who, as president, led the nation during the Civil War years, and Frederick Douglass, a former slave and civil rights activist who was also the first citizen black in having a high standard in the United States. rank of government.
The focus, however, was never on them, but on all the black men and women who contributed to society. Such efforts saw life gradually improve for blacks in America, and recognition of Black History Week spread across the country. However, it wasn’t until the 1940s that black history finally made its way into school books, raising awareness. Finally, in 1976, six years after Woodson’s death, his Association for the Study of the Life and History of Blacks, now 100 years old, changed its name to the Association for the Study of the Life and History of African Americans. Then, ASALH took care that not only one week was reserved, but the entire month of February.
And every year since then, both Republican and Democratic presidents have announced the annual Black History Month theme. 2016 is “Sacred Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.” As ASALH reminds us, “You cannot tell the history of the United States without preserving and reflecting on the places where African Americans have made history.”
Meanwhile, some of those notable places and the people involved in that history deserve special attention, starting from 1619 when the first African slaves arrived in Virginia and 1808 when Congress finally banned their importation. Then, in 1861, the Confederacy was founded, the Deep South broke away, and the Civil War began.
Two years later, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation “freeing all persons held as slaves.” However, the war did not end until 1865; At that time, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery was ratified. Reconstruction followed, and then the 14th Amendment was ratified, overturning Dred Scott’s decision of 1857 that held that Congress could not outlaw slavery and that slaves were not citizens. However, it took three more years before the 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to vote.
Also noteworthy:
- 1869: Howard University became our first African-American law school.
- 1877: Reconstruction in the South ends.
- 1879: Spelman College, the first college for black women, is founded.
- 1879: Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama.
- 1896: The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson argued that racial segregation is constitutional.
- 1905: WEB DuBois founded the Niagara movement, forerunner of the NAACP.
- 1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.
- 1914: Marcus Garvey established the Universal Association for the Improvement of the Negro.
- 1947: Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the major league color barrier.
- 1952: Malcolm X becomes minister of the Nation of Islam.
- 1954: Brown v. Board of Education declared that racial segregation is unconstitutional.
Despite those advances, the following year Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. Then, in 1957, nine black students were banned from Central High, and the National Guard had to be called in. History also reminds us that in 63, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and imprisoned during the anti-segregation protests, but received the Noble Peace Prize the following year. He was assassinated in 1968.
That same year, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman to represent the United States, and in ’83, Guion Bluford, Jr. was the first black woman in space. These developments then brought us into the 21st century:
- 2001: Colin Powell was named the first African-American American Secretary of State.
- 2005: Condoleezza Rice became the first black American secretary of state.
- 2008: Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.
- 2009: Eric H. Holder is named the first African American to serve as the Attorney General of the United States.
- 2015: There are 46 black members in the United States House of Representatives and 2 in the Senate.
If he could, today Mr. Woodson could say, “It’s about time.”
