Black History Month

Though Black History Month started on Monday, I'm going to play catch up with some history facts. Enjoy!!

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) devoted the remainder of his life, after leaving Howard University because of differences with the president, to historical research. He worked to preserve the history of African-Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African-American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of textbooks and the teachers who use them." Race prejudice, he concluded, "is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect t hat the Negro never has contributed anything to the progress of mankind." In 1926, Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week," for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week was later extended to the full month of February and renamed Black History Month.

"As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching." - Dr. Carter G. Woodson