“Truth must be dug up from the past and presented to the circle of scholastics in scientific form and then through stories and dramatizations that will permeate our educational system.”
- Carter G. Woodson
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| Carter G. Woodson, scholar and founder of Black History Month |
Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926 to combat this deliberate, organized historical scheme to rob Black people of their history and role in the development of civilization. In 1915, he helped to found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to promote the scientific study of Black life and history because he recognized the importance of researching and sharing this history. The following year, he established The Journal of Negro History which published scholarly research about Black history and life. So, establishing Negro History Week was a continuation of his important work.
As early as 1920, in fact, Woodson had urged Black organizations, including his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, to promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering. In 1924, Omega Psi Phi began Negro History and Literature Week, which was later renamed Negro Achievement Week. Woodson wanted their efforts to have greater impact so he expanded what Omega Psi Phi had done.
Months before that first celebration in 1926, Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History sent out promotional brochures and pamphlets suggesting ways to celebrate Negro History Week. These promotions went to state boards of education, elementary and secondary schools, colleges, women's clubs, Black newspapers, and white scholarly journals. He chose the second week of February for the observance because the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, two men that Black Americans celebrated, fell during that week. Woodson continued to develop materials for the annual celebration, including photographs, books, pamphlets, and other promotional literature. In 1928 he created a "Table of 152 Important Events and Dates in Negro History" to make important milestones in Black history available in one resource.
During the early years, Negro History Week included celebrations, parades, plays, banquets, lectures, exhibits and other special presentations. And it was enormously successful. In his autobiography Dusk of Dawn (1940), W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that Negro History Week was the greatest single accomplishment to arise from the Harlem Renaissance.
By the early 1970s, a few cities and organizations expanded the observance to a month and began calling it Black History Month. In 1976, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which had continued to oversee the management of the observance, declared the entire month of February Black History Month.
Carter G. Woodson, however, did not intend for Black history to be relegated to one week or month. He believed that the weekly “celebrations” would eventually come to an end. He never viewed Black history as a one-week affair. He advocated for year-round study and celebration of Black history. He pushed for schools to use Negro History Week to demonstrate what students had learned all year. He also established a Black studies extension program to reach adults throughout the year so they too could learn of their history on a regular basis.
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| Wade Hudson speaks during a Black History Month celebration at Benjamin Banneker School in East Orange, NJ |
I’m grateful for Carter G. Woodson, his vision and his work, which provide a foundation for our mission at Just Us Books. And we know so much more work still needs to be done. Most Americans still know little about the history and contributions of Black people. Woodson understood how crucial it was that we all know more about that history. That’s why he dedicated much of his life making it more assessible.
I consider it my duty, as many of those before me did, to write about our history, to share our stories, and to shed light on the rich legacy that we have as a people. Black History Month continues to be necessary. But like Carter G. Woodson, I believe it should be a celebration of all the Black history we’re learning throughout the year, not a one-month elevation and recycling of select Black achievers.
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Wade Hudson is an author, publisher and president of Just Us Books, a publishing company he founded with his wife Cheryl, which produces books that center and celebrate Black history, stories and experiences. His latest book is Journey, a collection of poems published by Third World Press.
