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BLACK HISTORY Month began in the United States in remembrance of important people and events in African American history. It is celebrated annually in the United States and Canada in the month of February, while in the UK it is held in the month of October.
Black History Month was established in 1976 by the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. The month-long celebration was an expansion of Negro History Week, which was established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, director of what was then known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
Woodson selected the week in February that embraced the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. The celebration may have had its origins in the separate efforts of Mary Church Terrell and the African American collegiate fraternity Omega Phi Psi. The former had begun the practice of honouring Frederick Douglass on February 14, the date he used to mark his birth. The Omegas established a “Negro Achievement Week” in 1924.
Woodson was friends with Mary Church Terrell and worked with her and the National Council of Coloured Women to preserve Douglass’ home and personal papers.
Woodson was also a member of Omega Psi Phi. While Terrell’s celebration of Douglass was a local event and the Omega Achievement Week was part of their community outreach, Woodson broadened the scope of the celebration in three significant ways. First, he conceived of the event as a national celebration, sending out a circular to groups across the United States. Secondly, he sought to appeal to both whites and blacks and to improve race relations. For this reason, he chose President Lincoln’s birthday as well as Douglass’.
Finally, Woodson viewed Negro History Week as an extension of ASNLH’s effort to demonstrate to the world that Africans and peoples of African descent had contributed to the advance of history.
Each year, ASNLH would select a national theme and provide scholarly and popular materials to focus the nation’s “study” of Negro history.
As such, Negro History Week was conceived as a means of undermining the foundation of the idea of black inferiority through popular information grounded in scholarship. The theme, chosen by the founders of Black History Month, for 2007 was for instance “From Slavery to Freedom, Africans in the Americas.”
The Negro History Week Movement took hold immediately. At first it was celebrated almost exclusively by African Americans, taking place outside of the view of the wider society. Increasingly, however, mayors and governors, especially in the North, began endorsing Negro History Week and promoting interracial harmony. By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a well-established cultural institution. Indeed, it was so established that Woodson had begun to criticize groups for shallow and often inaccurate presentations that did not advance the public’s knowledge of Negro life and history.
With the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s, many in the African American community began to complain about the insufficiency of a week-long celebration.
In 1976, the ASNLH, having changed its name to The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, responded to the popular call, citing the 50th annual celebration and America’s bicentennial.
History books had barely begun covering black history when the tradition of Black History Month was started. At that point, most representation of blacks in history books was only in reference to the low social position they held, with the exception of George Washington Carver. Black History Month can also be referred to as African- American History Month, or African Heritage Month. One of the few U.S. history works at that time told from an African American perspective was W.E.B. DuBois’ 1935 work “Black Reconstruction.”
In the United Kingdom (UK), Black History Month is celebrated in the month of October. The official guide to Black History Month in the UK is published by Sugar Media, Ltd., who produce 100,000 copies nationwide.
Part of the aim of Black History Month is to expose the harms of racial prejudice and to cultivate black self-esteem following centuries of socioeconomic oppression. It is also an opportunity to recognize significant contributions to society made by people with African heritage.
Black History Month sparks an annual debate about the continued usefulness of a designated month dedicated to the history of one skin colour. Critical pieces have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer and USA Today.
Some African American radical/nationalist groups, including the Nation of Islam, have criticized Black History Month. Other critics contend that Black History Month is irrelevant because it has degenerated into a shallow ritual.
Some, like Morgan Freeman, contend that it serves to undermine the contention that black history is American history.
Woodson, creator of Negro History Month, hoped that the week would eventually be eliminated, when African-American history would be fully integrated with American history.
Here in the UK the debate still surrounds that fact of Black history not being a onemonth thing. Birminghambased poet/singer/songwriter Kokumo completely disagrees that black history is a onemonth thing. “My view on ‘Black History Month’ is that the history of Black people cannot be told in a month, we have one of the longest and oldest civilisations known to man,” he said. “I however do not object to the use of this opportunity to sensitize people who would not normally have a focus on the history of black people. The problem I do have with this celebration is that after the month of October has ended the focus is shifted and nothing more significant is done to continue the acknowledgements, nothing in the schools, community or other government organisations.”
Kokumo’s view is like the general view of most Black Caribbean. Jah Blakks Mosiah, a meditative reggae artist, shares that view but vows to continue to use his music as a tool to portray the everlasting spiritual and physical strength of blackness.
“Black history is eternal, it can’t be told with an amount of time or period,” Jah Blakks said. “My music is centered on liberating black brothers and sisters from their mental bondage. The power that exists in blackness can’t be written or told as a story, I try as much to follow my mission which is to use my music to showcase this overwhelming power.”
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