Black History Month: Made Possible Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Remembering the Power of Community in African-American History

"The celebration tends not to promote propaganda, but to counteract it by popularizing the truth. It is not interested so much in Negro History as it is in history influenced by the Negro; for what the world needs is not a history of selected races or nations but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. There has been therefore, no tendency to euologize the Negro nor to abuse his enemies. The aim has been to emphasize important facts in the belief that facts properly set forth will speak for themselves..."
- Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Editor, scholar, historian and recognized “Father of Black History Month,” Dr. Carter G. Woodson believed that knowledge and understanding of African and African-American History would play an integral role in the future of African-Americans and America as a whole. He envisioned an era when such a specified delineation between African-American History and general American History would be unnecessary. He hoped that society's knowledge of African-American History would flow seamlessly into that of American History; the role which Africans and African-Americans played in history would be simply acknowledged and reasonably accepted. 

With this thought in mind, he established Negro History Week in February 1926. He selected February for this observance because the birthdays of two historical figures key to African-American History fall during this month. The accepted birthday of Frederick Douglass is on February 14th and that of Abraham Lincoln is on February 12th. Since Dr. Woodson set aside this week, it has expanded to encompass the whole of February. 

He created this holiday under the auspices of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, ASALH, which he founded in 1915. This organization still advocates for the support and continued study of African and African-American history. They select a yearly theme for this purpose. This year’s theme is "Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternities, Social and Civic Institutions."*