Categories: commentary,
By W.A. Rogers
I am still surprised that a number of Black people, young and old, are not aware of the history of how Black History Month. I publish this article every year to make sure that as many Africans born in America and the Caribbean get to know its origins.
I was raised by my grandparents, Elizabeth and Joseph Woodson, in Williamston, South Carolina, until it was time to start school and every summer until I was about thirteen. My grandfather died in 1952, two years after his famous cousin Dr. Carter G. Woodson, known as the Father of Black History.
Carter G. Woodson was born in New Canton, Virginia, on December 19, 1875. His parents, James Woodson and Eliza Riddle Woodson had seven children. Carter was their fourth child. Young Carter worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. As a result, he did not begin high school until his late teens. He was a brilliant student and completed a four-year course of study in less than two years.
Woodson attended Berea College in Kentucky for about two years, leaving college to work for the United States in the Philippines as an education superintendent. After returning to the United States, he continued his studies at the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Woodson became the second African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University (after W.E.B. Du Bois). Woodson became dedicated to the field of African American history.
In 1915, Woodson returned to Chicago to participate in a national celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. Exhibits highlighting the achievements of Black people since the abolition of slavery inspired Woodson to do more to celebrate Black history and heritage. Before leaving Chicago, he helped form the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). A year later, in 1916, Woodson developed the Journal of Negro History.
In February 1924, Dr. Woodson began his campaign to create a week to celebrate Negro History. Dr. Woodson chose the third week in February in recognition of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on February 12 and Frederick Douglass on February 14. Douglass was born into slavery, so his actual birthdate was unknown, but he chose the 14th as his birthday.
Negro History Week was officially launched in 1926. During the rise of the civil rights movement, younger members of ASNLH (which was changed to the Association for the Study of African American History) urged the organization to shift to a month-long celebration of Black history. In 1976 on the 50th anniversary of the first Negro History Week, the Association officially shifted to Black History Month.
Dr. Woodson, in his famous book “The Miseducation of the Negro” writes, “If you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. 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.”
My mom, Anna Woodson-Rogers, often told me about her dad reading to her about Black history from the Negro History Bulletin, a mail-order bulletin published by his cousin Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Black history was not taught in schools at that time. Knowledge is power; perhaps that is why some would like to keep it out of schools to this day.
