Current:Home > NewsWhat you need to know about the origins of Black History Month -VisionFunds
What you need to know about the origins of Black History Month
TrendPulse View
Date:2025-04-06 12:47:20
This article was originally published on February 2, 2017.
Black History Month is considered one of the nation’s oldest organized history celebrations, and has been recognized by U.S. presidents for decades through proclamations and celebrations. Here is some information about the history of Black History Month.
How did Black History Month start?
It was Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the Association for the Study of African American History, who first came up with the idea of the celebration that became Black History Month. Woodson, the son of recently freed Virginia slaves, who went on to earn a Ph.D in history from Harvard, originally came up with the idea of Negro History Week to encourage Black Americans to become more interested in their own history and heritage. Woodson worried that Black children were not being taught about their ancestors’ achievements in American schools in the early 1900s.
“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.
Carter G. Woodson in an undated photograph. Woodson is a founder of the Association for the Study of African American History, who first came up with the idea of the celebration that became Black History Month. (AP Photo, File)
Why is Black History Month in February?
Woodson chose February for Negro History Week because it had the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, and Douglass, a former slave who did not know his exact birthday, celebrated his on Feb. 14.
Daryl Michael Scott, a Howard University history professor and former ASAAH president, said Woodson chose that week because Black Americans were already celebrating Lincoln’s and Douglass’s birthdays. With the help of Black newspapers, he promoted that week as a time to focus on African-American history as part of the celebrations that were already ongoing.
The first Negro History Week was announced in February 1926.
“This was a community effort spearheaded by Woodson that built on tradition, and built on Black institutional life and structures to create a new celebration that was a week long, and it took off like a rocket,” Scott said.
Why the change from a week to a month?
Negro History Week was wildly successful, but Woodson felt it needed more.
Woodson’s original idea for Negro History Week was for it to be a time for student showcases of the African-American history they learned the rest of the year, not as the only week Black history would be discussed, Scott said. Woodson later advocated starting a Negro History Year, saying that during a school year “a subject that receives attention one week out of 36 will not mean much to anyone.”
Individually several places, including West Virginia in the 1940s and Chicago in the 1960s, expanded the celebration into Negro History Month. The civil rights and Black Power movement advocated for an official shift from Black History Week to Black History Month, Scott said, and, in 1976, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Negro History Week, the Association for the Study of African American History made the shift to Black History Month.
FILE - Six Catholic nuns, including Sister Mary Antona Ebo, front row fourth from left, lead a march in Selma, Ala., on March 10, 1965, in support of Black voting rights and in protest of the violence of Bloody Sunday when white state troopers brutally dispersed peaceful Black demonstrators. (AP Photo, File)
Presidential recognition
Every president since Gerald R. Ford through Joe Biden has issued a statement honoring the spirit of Black History Month.
Ford first honored Black History Week in 1975, calling the recognition “most appropriate,” as the country developed “a healthy awareness on the part of all of us of achievements that have too long been obscured and unsung.” The next year, in 1976, Ford issued the first Black History Month commemoration, saying with the celebration “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
President Jimmy Carter added in 1978 that the celebration “provides for all Americans a chance to rejoice and express pride in a heritage that adds so much to our way of life.” President Ronald Reagan said in 1981 that “understanding the history of Black Americans is a key to understanding the strength of our nation.”
veryGood! (9864)
Related
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Here's what can happen when you max out your 401(k)
- 3 'missing' people found safe, were never in car when it was submerged off Texas pier, police say
- Global tech outage grounds flights, hits banks and businesses | The Excerpt
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- What to know about Kamala Harris' viral coconut tree meme: You exist in the context of all in which you live
- Bruce Springsteen's net worth soars past $1B, Forbes reports
- LSU cornerback Javien Toviano arrested on accusation of video voyeurism, authorities say
- Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
- Looking for an Olympic documentary before Paris Games? Here are the best
Ranking
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- The Best Flowy Clothes That Won’t Stick to Your Body in the Summer Heat
- We Tried the 2024 Olympics Anti-Sex Bed—& the Results May Shock You
- 12-year-old girl charged with killing 8-year-old cousin over iPhone in Tennessee
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Tour de France Stage 21: Tadej Pogačar wins third Tour de France title
- Mamie Laverock speaks out for first time after suffering 5-story fall: 'My heart is full'
- US investigating some Jeep and Ram vehicles after getting complaints of abrupt engine stalling
Recommendation
Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
Halloween in July is happening. But Spirit Halloween holds out for August. Here's when stores open
Xander Schauffele claims British Open title for his second major of season
Nashville-area GOP House race and Senate primaries top Tennessee’s primary ballot
Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
The Daily Money: Americans are ditching their cars
Who could replace Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee?
VP Kamala Harris salutes national champion college athletes at White House