Black History Month
Every February, a special month-long celebration is held in America. This is the month chosen to bring to everyone’s attention the contributions to American life made by African Americans.
In 1926, the first week-long celebration for African Americans started by a man whose parents were former slaves. The celebration was called Negro History Week. The man who got the ball rolling was Dr. Carter G. Woodson. His early years were spent working in a coal mine. He had no formal education until he was 20 years old when he finally got the opportunity to enrol in high school.
Imagine not having to go to school all your young life! Everyone complains at some stage about having to go to school; but imagine if instead of going to school, you had to go to work long, hard hours doing a horrid, dirty job – then school is a much better option! Young Carter dreamed of going to school and when he finally did, he was so excited to study that he managed to complete all his high school years in just two years!
His great academic achievement allowed him to enrol in a very good college and he earned his PhD at Harvard. Dr. Woodson realized that the school textbooks ignored African Americans and what they had achieved in America, and he began doing research to find out about those African Americans who had made their mark and become well-known for doing/achieving and contributing to the American way of life. This encouraged him to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915.
He also felt that it was necessary to focus attention on African American contributions to civilization and so the Negro History Week began. It was held the second week in February. Dr. Woodson picked that week because it marks the birthdays of two men he felt were significant in black history – Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Eventually, February became Black History Month and Dr. Woodson became known as the “Father of Black History Month.” In 1976, the then President of America, Gerald Ford, said that Americans should “seize the opportunity to honour the too often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout history.”
The idea of having just one month to celebrate the African American achievements in America is not liked by everyone as critics feel Black history is American history and should be celebrated throughout the entire year.
“Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and died in 2014.She was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Maya’s young life was very difficult; she suffered some awful experiences when she was eight which made her stop talking. It took her five years before she was able to speak again. During these years when she was not speaking, she developed an extraordinary memory. She really began her love for books and literature; and she honed her ability to listen and observe the world around her. She began to read books by authors, who would affect her life and career, such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, as well as poets like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.
Maya Angelou became a dancer and singer and performed in the theatre and she began to write stories and poems. She went to live in Africa in a country called Ghana where she became an administrator at the University of Ghana; she was also active in the African-American expatriate community.
In 1965, she returned to America where she helped Malcom X build a new civil rights organization. Her amazing writing ability, her strength and fortitude saw her producing theatre, writing poetry and publishing her first autobiography titled “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” in 1969.
In 2013, a year before she died at the age of 85, she published the seventh autobiography in her series, titled “Mom & Me & Mom.” The book focuses on her relationship with her mother.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the first African American people you will learn about is Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of the most revered African American persons in history. He was born in 1929 and died in 1968. He was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement. His tactics were to be nonviolent based on his Christian beliefs. He was inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He never backed down in his stand against racism and dedicated his life to achieving equality and justice for all Americans of all colours. He organized and led marches for blacks' right to vote, and other basic civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Prize for Peace in December in 1964.
“You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.” ~(Leroy) Eldridge Cleaver
Besides the African American people, who fought for the recognition of the Black Americans in America, there are many other African Americans who made it to the top in a lot of other areas. The African American people are amazing athletes:
- Hank Aaron was one of the greatest hitters to ever play in Major League Baseball; he is known as the man who broke baseball’s greatest record, Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs.
- Satchel Paige is remembered as one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time.
- Charlie Sifford helped allow golf to be played by generations of black golfers.
- Willie O’Ree was the first black player in the hockey league’s history.
- Wilt Chamberlain is recognized as one of the greatest basketball players in history.
- Muhammad Ali, the professional boxer known as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, was also an activist.
There are African American people who have made it to the top in many, many other fields as well.
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. is remembered as being the first Black Air Force General.
The most amazing music started with black musicians a long time ago and many of their names will be forever remembered, like Loui Armstrong who played the best Jazz.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African-American woman physician in the United States.
There have been many women activists – the most well-known is Rosa Parkes, who would not give up her seat in a bus.
There are many black heroes in the forces fighting alongside their fellow men and women. More recently, there are a number of African Americans who are top of the field in technologies, like Mark Dean who helped develop a number of landmark technologies for IBM, including the colour PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip. He holds three of the company's original nine patents.
James Edward Maceo West is an American inventor and acoustician, who holds over 250 foreign and U.S. patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets.
President Barak Obama and his family have become an icon of grace, intelligence and caring to their family and to everyone else.
There are so many citizens of America whose overall ideas are the same as these many black Americans. Be nonviolent and peaceful while fighting for rights to be able to stand strong and tall with the best of all other Americans. The African American shows the way by taking the lead!
