Remembering African Americans With Contributions During Black History Month
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During this Black History Month (Feb 1, 2023 – March 1, 2023), we should remember and celebrate these African Americans who have made great contributions to not only the American History, but History of the world. Even though not complete, these names should be included and covered in African American History or Studies. For more background information regarding Black History Month, please refer to the excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently has been observed in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. It is celebrated in February in the United States[4] and Canada,[5] while in Ireland and the United Kingdom it is observed in October.[6][7]
Negro History Week (1926)
The precursor to Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week”.[8] This week was chosen because it coincided with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12 and that of Frederick Douglass on February 14, both of which Black communities had celebrated since the late 19th century.[8] For example, in January 1897, school teacher Mary Church Terrell persuaded the Washington, D.C. school board to set aside the afternoon of Douglass’s birthday as Douglass Day to teach about his life and work in the city’s segregated public schools.[9] The thought process behind the week was never recorded, but scholars acknowledge two reasons for its birth: recognition and importance.[10] In 1915, Woodson had participated in the Lincoln Jubilee, a celebration of the 50 years since emancipation from slavery held in Bronzeville, Chicago. The summer-long Jubilee, which drew thousands of attendees from across the county to see exhibitions of heritage and culture, impressed Woodson with the need to draw organized focus to the history of black people. He led the founding of the ASNLH that fall.[9]
Early in the event’s history, African-American newspapers lent crucial support.[11] From the event’s initial phase, primary emphasis was placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of Black Americans in the nation’s public schools. The first Negro History Week was met with a lukewarm response, gaining the cooperation of the departments of education of the states of North Carolina, Delaware, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.[12] Despite this limited observance, Woodson regarded the event as “one of the most fortunate steps ever taken by the Association”, and plans for an annual repeat of the event continued.[12]
At the time of Negro History Week’s launch, Woodson contended that the teaching of Black History was essential to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of Blacks within broader society:
If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization.[13]
In 1929, The Journal of Negro History noted that, with only two exceptions, officials with the state departments of education of “every state with considerable Negro population” had made the event known to that state’s teachers and distributed official literature associated with the event.[14] Churches also played a significant role in the distribution of literature in association with Negro History Week during this initial period, with the mainstream and Black press aiding in the publicity effort.
Throughout the 1930s, Negro History Week countered the growing myth of the South’s “lost cause“, which argued that enslaved people had been well-treated, that the Civil War was a war of “northern aggression”, and that Black people had been better off under slavery. Woodson wrote in his book The Miseducation of the American Negro[failed verification], “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions, you do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.”[15]
Negro History Week grew in popularity throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.[8]
Black History Month (1970)
Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University first proposed Black History Month in February 1969. The first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State a year later, from January 2 to February 28, 1970.[4]
Six years later, Black History Month was being celebrated all across the country in educational institutions, centers of Black culture, and community centers, both great and small, when President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976, during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. He urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history”.[16]
Africa History, Africa History Documentary, Africa History Movie, Africa History Channel, Africa History Lecture, Africa History Before Colonialism, Africa History Before Slavery, Africa History Reaction, Africa History Music, in the video published on Nov 4, 2021, by NEVO’s ISLAND, as “Top 10 Historical Black Figures That Changed American History | 10 INFLUENTIAL AFRICAN AMERICANS“, below:
In the video published on March 3, 2021, by Matter of Factx, as “10 Black History Facts That Are Least Known“, below:
Numerous African-American inventors and scientists are included on this list of African-American innovators and scientists who have produced a wide range of goods or made major discoveries during their lives. These have ranged from useful everyday devices to applications and scientific discoveries in fields such as physics, biology, mathematics, and medical space exploration, among others. African-Americans have suffered from injustice, racism, and persecution, all of which have had an impact on their creativity. Between 1870 and 1940, economist Lisa D. Cook linked lower creativity to violence against African-Americans and a lack of legal protections in a 2014 study. Enslavers took more than these men and women’s freedom from the time European immigrants forced Africans into the miseries of slavery in the early 17th-century American colonies. Over the almost 400-year history of American slavery, these slave owners sought to claim credit for their enslaved’ innovations, and as a result, there’s no way of knowing how many or, in some cases, which ideas should be ascribed to Black innovators. Thus started a long history of Black innovators who were able to patent their brilliant ideas, many of which are still in use today. Among these, below are a handful of the most widely utilized, in the video published on Sep 11, 2021, by AfriEye, as “TOP 20 BLACK INVENTORS – AFRICAN & AFRICAN-AMERICAN INCENTORS“, below:
In the video published on Oct 8, 2020, by Black Excellence Excellist, as “Black Excellist: 10 Black Women Inventors“, below:
Africa History, Africa History Documentary, Africa History Movie, Africa History Channel, Africa History Lecture, Africa History Before Colonialism, Africa History Before Slavery, Africa History Reaction, Africa History Music, History Hero, Africa History Hero, in the video published on Jul 23, 2020, by NEVO’S ISLAND, as “15 Untold Black History Inventors Wasn’t Taught At School“, below:
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
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