In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson enacted the first celebration of Black History Month, then called Negro History Week. Now 100 years later, that same week has grown into an entire month, and his celebration has continued to grow even more since. It helps to remind and inspire many people all over the world about the importance of treating everyone equally as people, even into this day in age.
Back in its earliest origins, Woodson had a difficult decision to make on when to celebrate Negro History Week. After much thought, he decided to celebrate it on the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
When he first learned about this fact, junior Eric Ross said, “I think that’s really smart. I think it’s a very good respect to black history in general, seeing as those two men were both really prominent figures in black history.” Junior Isaac McNair added that it really “gives you a sense of the scope.”
When Negro History Week was first celebrated, it faced massive backlash from those trying to suppress the elevation of black history. Through that suppression, it still managed to thrive, emphasizing the importance of having equal representation in history, regardless of things such as race.
When asked about what Black History Month means to him on a more personal level, Ross said, “I just feel that being represented and seen by other cultures is really important, and a good thing overall. Knowing history and the story of things about people, it’s all just really important.”
Black History Month is frequently taught in schools, often talking about important moments like the Civil Rights Movement, or important figures like Martin Luther King Jr. While knowing important figures and what they did is important to help educate people, it is also important to learn about those same figures on a deeper level in order to have a deeper connections to that knowledge.
“Knowing MLK outside of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech makes it so much more impactful,” junior Elaine Liu replied when asked about what she thought was the most important thing to know about historical Black figures. “Learning about their motivations or upcomings and misfortunes in life makes you really realize how hard they worked to do what they did.”
In this day and age, it can start to feel really easy to forget things you learn, especially with the shortening attention spans created by short-form content. Despite that, Black History Month still manages to transcend that epidemic by maintaining its relevance, even in modern time.
When asked if Black History Month was still important in current times, McNair said, “I think it’s still really important. It shows the people who’ve been discriminated against, what they fought for, for literally years. It doesn’t just try to downplay them.” Ross added that it definitely gets a lot of attention, but more attention would also be appreciated.
Black History Month has undeniably had a massive impact on not just the United States, but the world as a whole. It has helped to bring more awareness not only to Black history, but also black culture in all ways, shapes and forms.
When asked what impact he thinks that black culture has had on the world, Ross said, “I think that it’s all influenced the world positively. I think there’s a lot of great things, whether it’s black music, food or movies, it’s all really helped to positively impact the world.”
Of course, Black History Month is not just about the history, but its is also about teaching humanity. Liu hopes that futures generations can lean from this, saying, “I hope they can learn empathy. Rather than calling them ‘usual suspects,’ or stereotyping them as a joke, I hope they can learn to be a little more sensitive.”
