THE WEEKLY GLEANER | FEBRUARY 15 - FEBRUARY 21, 2024 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 9 BLACK HISTORY Month is considered one of the nation’s oldest organised history celebrations, and has been recognised by US presidents for decades through proclamations and celebrations. Here is some information about the history of Black History Month. HOW DID BLACK HISTORY MONTH START? IT WAS Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the Association for the Study of African American History, who first came up with the idea of the celebration that became Black History Month. Woodson, the son of recently freed Virginia slaves, who went on to earn a Ph.D in history from Harvard, originally came up with the idea of Negro History Week to encourage Black Americans to become more interested in their own history and heritage. Woodson worried that black children were not being taught about their ancestors’ achievements in American schools in the early 1900s. “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,”Woodson said. WHY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH IN FEBRUARY? Woodson chose February for Negro History Week because it had the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was born on February 12, and Douglass, a former slave, who did not know his exact birthday, celebrated his on February 14. Daryl Michael Scott, a Howard University history professor and former ASAAH president, said Woodson chose that week because black Americans were already celebrating Lincoln’s and Douglass’s birthdays. With the help of Black newspapers, he promoted that week as a time to focus on AfricanAmerican history as part of the celebrations that were already ongoing. The first Negro History Week was announced in February 1926. “This was a community effort spearheaded by Woodson that built on tradition, and built on black institutional life and structures to create a new celebration that was a week long, and it took off like a rocket,” Scott said. WHY THE CHANGE FROM A WEEK TO A MONTH? Negro History Week was wildly successful, but Woodson felt it needed more. Woodson’s original idea for Negro History Week was for it to be a time for student showcases of the AfricanAmerican history they learned the rest of the year, not as the only week Black history would be discussed, Scott said. Woodson later advocated starting a Negro History Year, saying that during a school year “a subject that receives attention one week out of 36 will not mean much to anyone.” Individually several places, including West Virginia in the 1940s and Chicago in the 1960s, expanded the celebration into Negro History Month. The civil rights and black power movement advocated for an official shift from Black History Week to Black History Month, Scott said, and, in 1976, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Negro History Week, the Association for the Study of African American History made the shift to Black History Month. Every president since Gerald R. Ford through Joe Biden has issued a statement honouring the spirit of Black History Month. Ford first honoured Black History Week in 1975, calling the recognition “most appropriate” as the country developed “a healthy awareness on the part of all of us of achievements that have too long been obscured and unsung.” The next year, in 1976, Ford issued the first Black History Month commemoration, saying with the celebration “we can seize the opportunity to honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history.” President Jimmy Carter added in 1978 that the celebration “provides for all Americans a chance to rejoice and express pride in a heritage that adds so much to our way of life”. President Ronald Reagan said in 1981 that “understanding the history of black Americans is a key to understanding the strength of our nation”. AP THE EDITOR, Madam: THERE ARE those who will agree that it is a paradox to celebrate Black History Month in a society that is made up predominantly of people of African descent. Regardless of your position, it is important for us to pause and pay homage to the sacrifices of people of colour whose history is often under-represented and has been underappreciated over the centuries. Unfortunately, most Jamaicans are unaware of their historical background. Further ,a significant gap is in our education policy which relegates the teaching of history as optional. This omission of history from among the core subjects directly impacts how we see ourselves as a people. The ongoing bleaching of the skin is also related to the lack of knowledge of our rich and powerful historical past. The fact that history is optional in our schools speaks volumes about our cultural identity or lack thereof. Surprisingly, the movers and shakers with responsibility for curriculum development and testing; with a few exceptions, have done very little to right this colossal injustice. Every February, the United States pays homage to the contributions and sacrifices of African -Americans who worked tirelessly to shape the nation. Black History Month celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of the history and journey of the USA. The story of Black History Month began in 1915 when Harvardtrained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the group sponsored a national Negro History Week in 1926. The second week of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Importantly, by the late 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Additionally, protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the US were fundamental to the change. Over the years, the observation of Black History Month has increased rapidly beyond the US. The event is commemorated in many schools and communities, particularly in the Americas. Black History Month can be celebrated by establishing history clubs and hosting performances and lectures in educational and cultural spaces. Additionally, social media facilitates the sharing of information regarding black history. February was chosen primarily because it coincided with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln, who was influential in the emancipation of slaves, and Douglass, a former slave and a prominent leader in the abolitionist movement. The Black History Month theme for 2024 is ‘Rhythms of Resilience: One Soul, One Sound’. The theme centres on the concept that black history, culture, and music embody a tapestry of diversity and interconnection, rather than being a single narrative. What is noteworthy is that, in 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month. President Ford called upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history”. Today, Black History Month is a time to honour the contributions and legacy of African-American activists and civil rights pioneers, namely, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks, to leaders in industry, politics, science, culture and more. Among the legacies for post-slavery societies is the ability for us to build on the legacies of those who have gone before us. May we never forget the struggles of the past as we celebrate Black History Month. WAYNE CAMPBELL waykam@yahoo.com Observe Black History Month beyond symbolism THE EDITOR, Madam: THE NOTORIOUS fact that Britain shamefully paid enslaving planters for the loss of forced labour continues to haunt the descendants of those who were treated like discarded plantation animals. Slavery was based on racism practised at its worst. It was chattel enslavement, launched on African people and unmatched by any other form of slavery known to man. The Magna Carta, Britain’s bill of rights – its human rights charter – was implemented in June 1215. This was some four centuries before we were criminally extracted from our homeland and trafficked across the Atlantic. The British, who engaged in this massive human trafficking, were at one and the same time protecting their citizens with their centuries-old bill of rights. Its citizens were protected from the arbitrary powers of the king for centuries, because the Magna Carta enacted into law that the king and his government were not above the law, and were prohibited from oppressing or enslaving its people. After being restrained by law, the said king of England, James II, in 1685 spearheaded the birth of a shipping line called the Royal Shipping Company. This company, owned by the predecessors of ‘our’ current King Charles II, shipped more enslaved Africans to the Americas than any other single institution. When will Charles own up to this mass atrocity his bloodline inflicted on us? The £20 million paid for by the British state by law – The Slave Compensation Act of 1837 – to their plantation owners, and nothing paid to us, is clear evidence that the ending of slavery was not based on the love for us, nor any empathy for our suffering. Trinidadian scholar Eric Williams debunked that lie when his study showed that it was all about the money. Now that we have driven home, in the last five years, that black lives matter, we must now make our call for the payment by the same British government, at today’s value, of the equivalent of the £20 million they paid from their Treasury to their planter friends in 1834. We cannot continue to say “God save the King” in Jamaican courts while his lineage keeps the profits made from our blood with impunity. We demand that £20 million equivalent (worth £1 billion today) as a deposit. BERT SAMUELS Deputy Chair, National Council on Reparations bert.samuels@gmail.com Britain should pay reparations What you need to know about the origins of Black History Month Hundreds participate in the National Action Network demonstration in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s rejection of a high school African American history course, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023 in Tallahassee, Fla. AP
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