Source: CA Bridges
Black History Month originated from a week created nearly 100 years ago by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. It was established to honor two key figures in the history of Black emancipation in the United States: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas.
During this month, schools traditionally highlight the contributions of Black people to history and culture. They also focus on the history of slavery in the United States, the struggle to end it, the Civil Rights era, and its lasting effects on American life today.
Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, a sharecropper and the son of formerly enslaved and illiterate Virginia parents, was a self-made man. He taught himself enough to start high school at the age of 20 and quickly went on to earn a bachelor's degree in literature from Brea College and a master's degree from the University of Chicago. Woodson became the second Black American (after W. E. B. Du Bois) to obtain a Ph.D. from Harvard University and joined the faculty there, eventually becoming Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Woodson observed that African American history was often overlooked, ignored, or suppressed. White institutions and textbooks showed little interest in including Black history curriculums. He devoted much of his life to encouraging Black Americans to learn more about their own heritage and accomplishments.
The observance of African American History started as a week but was promoted by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (later renamed the Association for the Study of African American History) in 1976. This was the 50th Anniversary of the First Negro History Week, and it became a month-long observance.
"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.
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