What Does Black African American History Month Mean What Does Theme Mean in Art
At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias. Warren K Leffler/Universal History Archive/Getty Images hide caption
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Warren K Leffler/Universal History Archive/Getty Images
At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an stop to bias.
Warren K Leffler/Universal History Annal/Getty Images
Every February, the U.S. honors the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who take helped shape the nation. Black History Calendar month celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of our state'due south history.
This year'southward theme, Black Health and Health, pays homage to medical scholars and health care providers. The theme is especially timely as nosotros enter the tertiary yr of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has unduly afflicted minority communities and placed unique burdens on Black health intendance professionals.
"In that location is no American history without African American history," said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Eye at American University in Washington, D.C. The Black experience, she said, is embedded in "everything we recollect of as 'American history.' "
First, there was Negro History Week
Critics have long argued that Black history should be taught and celebrated twelvemonth-circular, not only during one month each yr.
It was Carter G. Woodson, the "father of Blackness history," who offset set up out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and brainwash people near Black history and culture, according to W. Marvin Dulaney. He is a historian and the president of the Association for the Report of African American Life and History (ASALH).
Woodson envisioned a weeklong celebration to encourage the coordinated teaching of Black history in public schools. He designated the 2d week of February equally Negro History Week and galvanized beau historians through the Clan for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915. (ASNLH later became ASALH.)
The idea wasn't to identify limitations but really to focus and broaden the nation'southward consciousness.
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was an American historian, a scholar and the founder of the Association for the Written report of Negro Life and History. Woodson was instrumental in launching Negro History Calendar week in 1926. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images hibernate caption
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Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
"Woodson'south goal from the very beginning was to make the celebration of Blackness history in the field of history a 'serious area of study,' " said Albert Broussard, a professor of Afro-American history at Texas A&M University.
The idea eventually grew in credence, and by the belatedly 1960s, Negro History Calendar week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the U.S. were pivotal to the change.
Colleges and universities also began to hold commemorations, with Kent State University being 1 of the first, co-ordinate to Kaplan.
Fifty years after the first celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Blackness History Month during the country'south 1976 bicentennial. Ford called upon Americans to "seize the opportunity to accolade the as well-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of effort throughout our history," History.com reports.
Why February was chosen as Black History Calendar month
February was chosen primarily considering the second calendar week of the month coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was influential in the emancipation of slaves, and Douglass, a former slave, was a prominent leader in the abolitionist motion, which fought to end slavery.
Lincoln and Douglass were each born in the second week of February, so information technology was traditionally a time when African Americans would hold celebrations in honor of emancipation, Kaplan said. (Douglass' verbal date of birth wasn't recorded, but he came to celebrate it on Feb. 14.)
Thus, Woodson created Negro History Calendar week around the two birthdays as a style of "commemorating the black past," according to ASALH.
Twoscore years after Ford formally recognized Black History Month, information technology was Barack Obama, the nation's outset Blackness president, who delivered a bulletin of his ain from the White House, a place built by slaves.
President Barack Obama and beginning lady Michelle Obama host the annual reception for Black History Calendar month at the White Firm on Feb. 18, 2016. Mike Theiler/Pool/Getty Images hide caption
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Mike Theiler/Pool/Getty Images
"Black History Month shouldn't be treated as though information technology is somehow separate from our collective American history or somehow just boiled down to a compilation of greatest hits from the March on Washington or from some of our sports heroes," Obama said.
"It's virtually the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high and low, famous and obscure, and how those experiences have shaped and challenged and ultimately strengthened America," he continued.
(Canada also commemorates Blackness History Calendar month in February, while the U.Grand. and Ireland celebrate it in Oct.)
At that place's a new theme every year
ASALH designates a new theme for Blackness History Month each yr, in keeping with the exercise Woodson established for Negro History Week.
This yr's Black Health and Wellness theme is particularly appropriate, Dulaney said, as the U.S. continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
"As [Black people], nosotros have terrible wellness outcomes, and even the coronavirus has been affecting us disproportionately in terms of those of united states of america who are catching it," Dulaney said.
"There's never been a time where Black people and others should not celebrate Blackness history," Broussard said. "Given the current racial climate, the racial reckoning that began in wake of George Floyd'due south murder ... this is an opportunity to acquire."
NPR has compiled a list of stories, performances and other content that chronicles the Black American feel for Black History Month. See the whole collection here.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1075623826/why-is-february-black-history-month
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