Black History Month February 20, 2014

In the month of February, along with Valentines day, and President’s day, comes another widely celebrated annual observance: Black History Month.  Also, known as African American History Month.

Before Americans were ‘recognizing’ African Americans, there was Negro History Week. This began in 1926.  In time, gradually, the recognition became Black History Month. It was in 1970, the evolution of Black History Month began.

We owe this commemoration of African Americans, to man named Carter G. Woodson. Cater was born to parents who were both former slaves, and spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines. But this didn’t falter him. He enrolled in high school at the age of 20, and graduated 2 years later! He later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. Carter was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population.

Thus: The establishment of Negro History Week begins. Carter G. Woodson, the now scholar, established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History ( which is now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915. He chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Dougloass and Abraham Lincoln.

There has, however, been criticism over the general term, ‘Black History Month’. Actor, Morgan Freeman, was quoted as saying:

”I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.”

Looking past criticism, because that’s what African American History month is about, let us esteem in the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs&feature=kp

PC TECH: English Language School in New York City