From a week to a month – Black History Month
Feb. 5, 2016
Reiland Rabaka
90-years ago Carter G. Woodson - an African-American historian, author,
journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of AfricanAmerican Life and History – designated the second week in February “Negro
History Week,” considered a precursor to Black History Month.
He did this, says Reiland Rabaka, a professor of African, African-American and
Caribbean Studies at CU-Boulder, to bring attention to the contributions
African-Americans made to American history that Woodson believed were
overlooked and ignored by writers of history textbooks and the teachers who
used them.
CUT 1 “Carter G. Woodson, the founder of what was then called ‘Negro History
Week’ back in the 1920s, he said that this was a special time that we should
amplify and intensify and heighten our appreciation of African-Americans.
(:15) Most people actually don’t know what Dr. Woodson did. What he
represented. The enormity of his position in African-American history and
culture.”(:24)
Why the month of February? Rabaka says Woodson did this to celebrate the
February birthdays of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass and
President Abraham Lincoln – two men Woodson wrote were fundamental to
African-American history.
CUT 2 “He never said that it should just be during the month of February. He
did it during the month of February because these are the birthdays of
Frederick Douglass, first and foremost, and Abraham Lincoln - people that are
fundamental to understanding African-American history and culture” (:13)
In 1970 the week was expanded to a month and in 1976 the U.S. government
officially recognized it. Rabaka says it’s no coincidence that Negro History
Week was expanded to a month at that moment in history.
CUT 3 “I think that from 1926 when they started with Negro History Week
and then 50 years later to expand it to Black History Month you can see that
happens at the tail end of the black power movement. So it shows you the
ground swell of activity during the black power movement.” (:14)
Several years after the U.S. recognized Black History Month the United
Kingdom in 1987 and Canada in 1995 began celebrating it as well.
-CU-