What’s the Deal with Black History Month?

Adaora Ede

For many, February marks the beginning of a new semester, the approaching threat of spring (yes! actual warm weather! Oh, the horrors) and getting cozy with someone for our fave holiday, Valentine’s Day. February, as the shortest month, happens to be one of the most eventful in all. But for a pretty large chunk of the American population, February commemorates their history. Yes, of course, February is Black History Month. But what do we know about this short-lived celebration of African American culture in the United States and Canada?

As it seems, we don’t really get much about Black History Month in our classes anymore. Celebrations of holidays and occasions like MLK Day and President’s’ Day have been relegated to the elementary school social studies curriculum in favor of focusing more on specific histories in high school and middle school. We might hear something about it on the news or our browser’s homepage, but there really isn’t much else. Yet, the concept of dedicating a period of time to the history of one race of people is still significant today if it has been existing since the 1920s.

So how exactly did it all start out? Black History Month, surprisingly enough, has only been an official thing for 40 years, since President Gerald R. Ford called upon the public to acknowledge the accomplishments of black Americans throughout history. Black History Month sees its formative roots in “Negro History Week”, started by a historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life in 1960s as an attempt to spread the education of the history of American blacks throughout public schools. The original week chosen to be Negro History Week was the second week of February. Why? The second week of February coincided perfectly with abolitionist president Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th and Black icon Frederick Douglass’ chosen birthday (because he didn’t know the exact day he was born) on February 14th. From there on, mayors throughout the country began to support the Negro History Week celebration and grew to an entire month mostly through the help of empowered African-American students on college campuses during the 1960s. Black History Month is even celebrated in Canada and the United Kingdom (however, our friends of the Eastern Hemisphere celebrate their Black History Month in October).

My belief is that it is extremely important to have a Black History Month to honor black culture in America, no matter how long or short the month. This is especially significant in what I’d like to refer to as the age of antiblackness. It hasn’t been too long since we would hear about a police brutality case, or protests against racial inequality on college campus on the news every week. Even as we attempt to remember important events for the African diaspora, I don’t think it would

be hyperbolic at all to say that society often does not elevate the image of black people. I don’t agree with the naysayers who believe that Black History Month is unnecessary or discriminatory because it honors the background of a people who are oft silenced by mainstream culture. I remember always being excited to learn about Black History as a kid in elementary school and I wish I still felt the same, knowing that I won’t hear much about it.

Fittingly, Google’s sketch for the first of February was an image of the aforementioned Frederick Douglass, a former slave-turned-abolitionist. This probably was mainly because of the fact that Douglass had a very vague understanding of when his birthday actually was, but it seems like it is a step forward. Locally, Black History Month is being celebrated at Harford Community College all through the month with a variety of exhibits and explorations ranging all the way from a visual exhibit about the Emancipation Proclamation in the Hays-Heighe House to a cultural excursion to Baltimore’s The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Hopefully, our awareness of the month will progress and Black History Month will become a cultural staple of recognizing the accomplishments of Black Americans.