Black History Month is not a holiday to be casually glanced at in our culture. It is a month to celebrate and learn more about Black culture and history. In order to do this, we have to understand where it comes from.
Black History Month was originally created as a week to celebrate African-American history by Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was an academic who pursued civil rights in all of his work. Inspired by a convention in Washington D.C. that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Woodson decided to create a week to celebrate Black history. He chose February because it was the month of Fredrick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but he did not want the week to focus too much on those men. Rather, he wanted it to be a time to celebrate the numerous Black lives who had helped achieve freedom.
It caught on like a wildfire, and soon schools across the country were celebrating Black History Week. Woodson and many other people gathered plays, posters, and lessons for teachers to use during this week. Woodson, though, had the goal of going beyond a sole week to study Black history and to instead have a whole year to celebrate Black culture and accomplishments.
In the 1960s, the goal shifted to a Black history month, largely because of ideas from activist Fredrick H. Hammaurabi. Hammaurabi used his cultural center to allow students from college campuses to study and celebrate Black history. This became what we know as Black History Month and the tradition has existed since.
It is important that we all celebrate the accomplishments of all Black people while also realizing the social importance of this moment. We must devote ourselves to be firmly anti-racist year-round, not just in Febuary. Here are some ways you can challenge yourself to be more socially active and aware, not just now, but forever.
- Study history we may have not learned in school. Great places to start would be Juneteenth, the Black Panthers, or lesser known areas of the Civil Rights movement.
- Read an anti-racist book, such as How to be an Anti-Racist Ibram X. Kendi or Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Check out art by Black artists
- Support Black-owned businesses
- Take time to research the African Diaspora
If we all pursue ways to be anti-racist and support Black lives year round, we can be on our way to a world that is more equitable than now.
Sources: https://asalh.org/about-us/origins-of-black-history-month/ https://www.naacp.org/latest/28-ways-celebrate-black-history-month/