Almost a century ago in February of 1926 a man started what we now refer to as Black History Month with an in goal in mind and that goal has yet to be realized I have to admit something before today doing research for this very specific topic I had never heard of
This person before and it’s actually quite disappointing as myself I used to be a teacher and of course as a teacher we celebrated Black History Month every single year on February at our school and it always culminated in some sort of performance or black history showcase
Put on by the students for the parents or for the community community itself and even myself when I was a little kid going to school of course we celebrated Black History Month every single year and we learned about it so on and so forth and as a matter of fact in high
School I was actually a part of a Black History Month Club or not Black History Month Club but just a black history Club in general and I had never heard this person’s name brought up before I certainly don’t recall it and on into college you know same type of situation
We celebrated Black History Month there were black history showcases so on and so forth never heard of this person’s name before today so obviously a great level of disappointment has been realized on my part but hopefully you all have heard of this man before and if not it’s okay because today we’re going
To dig into it and we’re going to learn more about this man Black History Month itself as well as the goal that has yet to be achieved and whether that goal has yet to be achieved purposefully or not and I’ll leave that up to y’all to figure out so the number one question
Here is who is this person I’m referring to well this person is the one and only Carter G Woodson does that name sound familiar to you hopefully it does but if not again I was completely unaware of this person and their achievements but he is the person credited with the
Creation and starting of what we now refer to as Black History Month Carter G Woodson was born December December 19th 1875 he died on April 3rd 1950 he was the son of two slaves but he went on to become a professor at Howard University he was also an author an American
Historian and he was only the second African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard University now the first person to received that PhD or the first African-American person to receive a PhD from Harvard University was web de boys now many of us know that name quite well because every single year for Black
History Month web de boys is always mentioned always celebrated for his accomp accomplishments and he should be he is the founder of the NAACP however again Carter G Woodson is the founder of Black History Month now how did Carter G Woodson go about starting what we refer to now as Black
History Month you see that story takes place all the way back back in the summer of 1915 in Chicago Carter G Woodson along with thousands of other black people from all across the country traveled to Chicago to take place in a 3-week long celebration that was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of
The Emancipation Proclamation and during the celebration there were historical exhibits and artifacts for people to view and take place in that celebrated black history culture and the experience of black people in America upon completion of this celebration Carter G Woodson was so moved and so inspired that he decided to start his own
Organization with the goal of promoting the history and life of African-Americans so on December 9th he met with four other individuals in Chicago and they formed what is now the association for the study of African-American life and history and this Association is still in existence today and still working to promote
African-American history history culture literature and the accomplish accomplishments of its people and as a matter of fact that Association is the main source for most of the information I am presenting to you today so please go check them out whether you’re a teacher who wants to incorporate more
About black history into your classroom or you’re just a curious individual who would like to find out more about this specific topic or more information in general about African-American studies please check out the association for the study of African-American life and history all right fast forward just one year from 1915 to
1916 and Carter G Woodson decides to publish a journal the title of this journal is the Journal of African-American history and the purpose of this journal is to highlight africanamerican research history pedagogical studies and do book reviews specific to African-American history but Carter G Woodson did not stop there he
Did not quit he kept working to urge multiple organiz ganizations to promote black history and in 1924 that’s exactly what his former fraternity did Omega sci-fi created what was then known as African-American history and literature week it later became African-American achievement week and then just two years after that in February of
1926 after having success with African-American history and literature week Mr Carter G Woodson sends out an official press release announcing the very first celebration of africanamerican History week all right so we now know black history month or should I say African-American history week started February
1926 on top of that though we get a response to a very common question and that question is why is Black History Month in February now with this question often comes the response of well you know black history month is is in February cuz the man the government or
Whomever wants to spend as little amount of time celebrating black history because of course February is the shortest month of the year but we know that’s not true because Carter G Woodson he’s the one responsible for creating starting what we now refer to as African-American history month and that
Is not what he was thinking about when he started it way back in February of 1926 in fact Mr Woodson he specifically chose February to celebrate African-American history week and the reason he did this was because of tradition and reform you see he was paying respect to two men who played a
Vital role in shaping black history here in America and those two men which we always hear about during Black History Month are Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas now these two men they have birthdays in February and leading up to what was African-American history week often times within the black community
They would celebrate these two men and their birthdays throughout the month of February so one of the initial goals with celebrating African-American history week was not to replace the celebration of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas but instead was to extend the study and celebration of African-American history now Mr Woodson
Did want to shift the sole Focus from being on these two gentlemen to more so being on the study and celebration of the race as a whole as Mr Woodson valued the group more so than the individual and wanted to put more emphasis on that as he believed that the countless number
Of men and women within the black community was worth celebrating more so than just two individuals themselves and immediately after Carter G Woodson sent out his press release the celebrations began popping up everywhere from schools to public fors as well as the formation and creation of private organizations
And clubs dedicated to celebrating the historical contributions of black people for over a decade Carter G Woodson work with these schools clubs and organizations by providing them with more information historical artifacts to help broaden their studies in Black History Literature and culture and on top of that they also created an annual
Theme for African-American history week and in 1937 another very well-known figure when we talk about Black History Month a person by the name of Mary McLoud bethon began working with both Mr Woodson as well as the association for the study of African-American life and history began publishing a journal
Focused specifically around that annual theme for African-American history week and to this very day this February in 2024 there is still a theme for every single year for Black History Month now this year’s theme is African-Americans in the Arts and even this I had no idea
That was an actual thing I was not aware that there was a specific official theme for each and every Black History Month going all the way back to 1928 and as time continued on so did the growth and success of African-American history week and starting early in the 1940s we start
Seeing a big push to expand the study of black history within schools as well as trying to expand African-American history week Beyond that One Singular week in addition to this we also start seeing for the first time in southern schools the incorporation of black history into their curriculum in a hope
And attempt to further Advance the studies of black history but remember Carter G Woodson died April 3rd 1950 and at the time of his death there was no Black History Month it was still only African-American history week it wasn’t until the late 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement that many young black
College students began really diving deep into black history and studying what it was all about this is when they started making the push to change African-American history week to Black History Month and it was on the 50-year anniversary of the first African-American history week in 1976 that the very first officially
Government approved Black History Month celebration took place when President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation endorsing that Year’s annual theme for Black History Month which at the time was America for all Americans and ever since then every single year every single president has signed the proclamation endorsing that Year’s
Annual theme for Black History Month now you might still be wondering what is this fail goal of Black History Month that the title of this video alludes to well you see Mr Carter G Woodson was very clear in that he wanted these annual African-American history week
Celebrations to come to an end and they did of sorts they just turned into monthly celebrations which you know at first stop might be a good thing however Mr Woodson hoped for and pushed for the study and celebration of African-American History Literature and culture to become a year-long
Never-ending process Mr Woodson W the study of these things to become so regular so common and so normal that the need for such celebrations would be pointless as it would just be a normal part of everyone’s regular life and education Mr Woodson didn’t want an annual celebration he wanted a daily
Celebration he believed that black history was too important to America and the world to be crammed into or limited to any specific amount of time he wanted to make that shift from an annual black history week to a black history year that was Mr Carter G Woodson’s goal that
Has yet to be realized some would even argue that Black History Month itself is a symbol of failure as it has now been almost a hundred years since Mr Woodson’s initial goal of celebrating and studying black history year round has not been realized but maybe they’re wrong maybe his goal has been realized
I’ll leave you with that question to debate and that point to make for yourself are we at a point where we no longer need an annual celebration of black history because it has become so commonplace and so thoroughly understood or are we still at a point where we need
That annual celebration because we have yet to fully Embrace to fully study and to fully understand the importance of black history here in America
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