Why Does Black History Celebrated in February?
The "Black History Week" event, which was founded in 1926, served as the inspiration for Black History Month (English: Black History Month), as well as African-American History Month. Aiming to preserve and promote black culture, black historian Carter G. Woodson launched the September 1915 founding of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
The association celebrated President Lincoln's birthday with Negro History Week events during the second week of February 1926. Across the nation, communities and schools responded to the incident.
In the late 1960s, as the black equal rights movement surged, History Week activities expanded into "History Month" in many schools. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized History Month, calling on Americans to commemorate the overlooked contributions of African Americans.
and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Despite this limited observance, Woodson regarded the event as "one of the most fortunate steps ever taken by the Association", and plans for an annual repeat of the event continued.
At the time of Negro History Week's launch, Woodson contended that the teaching of Black History was essential to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of Blacks within broader society:
If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization.
In 1929, The Journal of Negro History noted that, 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 during this initial period, with the mainstream and Black press aiding in the publicity effort.
Throughout the 1930s, Negro History Week countered the growing myth of the South's "lost cause", which argued that enslaved people had been well-treated, that the Civil War was a war of "northern aggression", and that Black people had been better off under slavery. Woodson wrote, "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."
Negro History Week grew in popularity throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.
Black History Month (1970)
Kuumba House at Kent State, the first Black culture centre established by Black United Students, hosted numerous events for the inaugural Black History Month commemoration.
Black History Month was first established in February 1969 by Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University. A year later, on January 2–February 28, 1970, Kent State hosted the inaugural Black History Month event.
Six years later, Black History Month was being celebrated all across the country in educational institutions, centres of Black culture, and community centres, both great and small, when President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976, during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. He urged Americans to "seize the opportunity to honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history".
