Black History Month serves as our national reminder of the epic legacy of African Americans. It is the brainchild of African American educator, Dr. Carter Goodwin Woodson. It is at this time when we, as a nation, stop to pay homage to the many individuals of African descent who have sacrificed and contributed to the growth and the development of this nation and the world.
It was the desire of the late Carter G. Woodson that the ignorance and myths surrounding the Negro be forthrightly addressed and dispelled. What better way to do so than to highlight past and present contributions in, a week-long celebration?
Born in 1875 to former slaves, Woodson in 1912, became the first and only American of slave parentage to earn a doctor of philosophy degree from Harvard University. Woodson created Negro History Week, as it was then called in 1926 and scheduled it during mid-February. Many believed he did so to coincide with the birthday of Frederick Douglass, a slave who escaped to the north and became a leading abolitionist, editor of the North Star, and a diplomat to Haiti under President Abraham Lincoln.
Others contend that Woodson chose February because even though the 13th Amendment to the constitution was signed in January which abolished slavery, slaves did not hear of the news until February.
Nevertheless, the idea of Negro History Week, Black History Month, or African American History Month, whichever you prefer, has helped in a major way to remove much of the needless speculation surrounding those of African descent.
Woodson reasoned that ‘the miseducation of the Negro” by mainstream historians had only served to further enslave the Negro in America and abroad. Woodson explained, “When 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. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
As a result of Woodson and other concerned historians and educators, the veil has been lifted and even Africa is no longer seen as the “dark continent” or the home of primitive savages and cannibals. No longer is Africa to be perceived as the mysterious homeland from which the Negro was snatched, shuffled out, and threatened never to look back.
According to Woodson, during Negro History Week the challenge was, and still is, to educate the Negro and others about the magnificent ancient empires on whose very foundation lies the cradle of civilization.
It was the duty of all involved to make known the glorious empires which were built and ruled by Africans. Every effort was to be made in exposing the world to the great temples, palaces, and pyramids, some of which still stand and attest to the skills of our forefathers. Empires such as the Egyptian with its complex governmental system led by powerful Pharaohs, who were themselves considered to be gods. And at the Pharaoh’s side, a Queen whose beauty rivals the glamorous models of 5th Avenue, the showgirls of Las Vegas, and the Hollywood starlets we are so familiar with today.
The study of the great West African empires such as Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and others would prove as Woodson believed that, “the achievement of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization. He has supplied the demand for labor of a large area of our country…He has given the nation a poetic stimulus, he has developed the most popular music of the modern era, and has preserved in its purity the brotherhood taught by Jesus of Nazareth. In his native country, moreover, he produced in the ancient world a civilization contemporaneous with that of the nations of the early Mediterranean, he influenced the cultures then cast in the crucible of time, and he taught the modern world the use of iron by which science and initiative have remade the universe. Must we let this generation continue to be ignorant of these eloquent facts?”
Woodson answered his own question by establishing Negro History Week, our national reminder and a time of celebration for all.