The forerunner to Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week” This week was chosen because it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). These dates had been celebrated together by Black communities since the late 19th century. Woodson felt deeply that at least one week would allow for the general movement to become something annually celebrated.
From the event’s initial phase, primary emphasis was placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of Black Americans in the nation’s public schools. The first Negro History Week was met with a lukewarm response, gaining the cooperation of the departments of education of the states of North Carolina, Delaware, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations for Baltimore and Washington, DC.
By 1929 with only two exceptions, officials with the state departments of education of “every state with considerable Negro population” had made the event known to that state’s teachers and distributed official literature associated with the event. Churches also played a significant role in the distribution of literature in association with Negro History Week.
Throughout the 1930s, Negro History Week countered the growing myth of the South that slaves had been well-treated, that the Civil War was a war of “northern aggression”, and that Black people had been better off under slavery. “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions”, Woodson wrote in his book The Miseducation of the American Negro, “you do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.
Negro History Week grew in popularity throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.
Black History Month was first proposed by Black educators and students at Kent State University in February 1969. The first celebration of Black History Month was from January 2 to February 28, 1970.
In 1976 President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. He urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.
In the Black community, Black History Month has met enthusiastic response; it prompted the creation of Black history clubs, an increase in interest among teachers, and interest from progressive whites.
Based on information in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.