Black History Month seems like a staple of one of the celebratory months to our generation, but the path to recognition was not a smooth one. In a time where we are pushing social rights and media representation back into the cultural arena, it’s good to look back at how far we’ve come so we can keep paving the way forward.
Origins
Black History Month didn’t begin as a month at all. In 1915, six years after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded, a historian named Carter Woodson found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). In 1926, they sponsored a “Negro History Week” in the second week of February. This week coincided nicely with Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas’ birthdays. This week inspired schools across the nation to hold events celebrating black achievements decades before Black History Month was recognized by the U.S. government.
Civil Rights Movement
During the late 1950s and 1960s, monumental actions were taken through events such as Brown v. Board of Education, the March on Washington, the Black Panther Party, a boycott sparked by Rosa Parks, the New York Race Riots, and countless other pivotal events that highlighted the growing social and political tensions in the U.S. Injustice, discrimination and the “separate but equal” doctrine had pushed black Americans to the breaking point. It wasn’t until 1976, after universities all over the country had continued their own annual Negro History Weeks and evolved the festivities into a full-fledged month, that President Gerald Ford named February the official Black History Month.
Official Month of Recognition
Although there are black history themes starting from the first Negro History Week, once Black History Month was officially recognized, schools across the nation celebrated the month with a theme that concentrated on certain topics or events throughout black history. The themes are chosen by the ASNLH. The themes from the last four years are as follows: in 2012, the theme was “Black Women in American Culture and History” with an added concentration on a proclamation from Barack Obama as he finished his first term; in 2013, it was “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality”; in 2014, it was “The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington”; and in 2015, it was “Civil Rights in America.” This year’s theme concentrates on the founders of Black History Month themselves.
Today, Black History Month is observed and celebrated during another era of social unrest and change. The fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the Black Lives Matter movement, and an increased awareness of blacks (and lack of blacks) in the media and in society have brought many unresolved issues to the forefront. Black History Month only grows in significance and importance as the country inches toward change.