“[Woodson] literally made this country, which has only the slightest respect for people of color, recognize and celebrate each year, a week in which it studied the effect which the American Negro has upon life, thought, and action in the United States. I know of no one man who in a lifetime has, unaided, built up such a national celebration.” -W.E.B. Du Bois

“No other single thing has done so much to dramatize the achievement of persons of African blood.” -Dr. Carter G. Woodson on Negro History Week

Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson is known as “The Father Of Black History” and for good reason. He took it upon himself to write Black people into American history and championed the idea that Black people should know our own history.

In 1915 Woodson and friends established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago. A year later he established the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week, later expanded to Black History Month in the 1960s.

Carter G. Woodson was also the author of The Mis-Education of the Negro, which Lauryn Hill played on in the title of her classic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Woodson’s book was about the conditioning of Black people in schools to remain inferior and oppressed. You can read about it at historyisaweapon.com or

So BHM started out as only a week. It was the second week in February and was intended to bringing attention to the contributions Black people have made to the US.

Why February, the shortest month of the year you ask? To honor the birthdays of important figures to the Black community, famed abolitionist Frederick Douglas and American president Abraham Lincoln.

So the white man did not choose February for Black people and there is something so fundamentally wrong in that thinking. So if anyone says that to you tell them about this or smack ‘em or both!

So what was the point of Black History month anyway? Not just the accumulation of facts about Black people. Not just to celebrate the individual achievements of extraordinary Black people and feel good about them, yourself or all of us. Not to marvel at the power of the human spirit in the achievements of persons who were descendants of slaves. Not to shame people today for not being nearly as impressive or accomplished.

These were the intentions:

To lessen prejudice among whites

To provide a way to study Black American heritage.

To record the history and contributions of Black people lest they be forgotten or denied.

Foster a sense of pride for Black people, especially children.

I think it’s these last points we let slide too often:

To look back in order to know how to go forward. In other words to apply the knowledge and the history

“The achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization.”

Src: Carter G. Woodson, Father of Black History
Gale: Carter G. Woodson
naacp.org

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