“We are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.” — Carter G. Woodson
While February is nearing its final days, Black History Month is going strong, with events and celebrations across the metro around the country. But many people still wonder: Why was February chosen as Black History Month? According to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the story begins in Chicago during the summer of 1915.
An alumnus of the University of Chicago, Carter G. Woodson traveled to Illinois to participate in a national celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. Sponsored by the state, thousands of African-Americans visited the event to view exhibits that championed the social progress achieved since emancipation. Among those inspired, Woodson would go on to form an organization to promote the scientific study of Black life and history — the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).
In the years that followed, Woodson urged Black civic organizations to promote the findings of his association. While he found some success, including the creation of Omega Psi Phi’s Negro Achievement Week, Woodson ultimately decided to shoulder the responsibility of proliferating news of his association’s findings himself. And in Feb. 1926, he issued a press release announcing Negro History Week.
“Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform,” the ASALH reported. “It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively. More importantly, he chose them for reasons of tradition.
“Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the Black community, along with other Republicans, had been celebrating the fallen President’s birthday. And since the late 1890s, Black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass’. Well aware of the pre-existing celebrations, Woodson built Negro History Week around traditional days of commemorating the Black past. He was asking the public to extend their study of Black history, not to create a new tradition. In doing so, he increased his chances for success.”
As schools began forming Negro History Clubs and mayors began issuing Negro History Week proclamations, Negro History Week was quickly spreading across the country.
Over the following decades, Negro History Week continued to grow. Woodson was dedicated to the cause until his death in 1950.
“In fact, Woodson never viewed black history as a one-week affair,” the association reported. “He pressed for schools to use Negro History Week to demonstrate what students learned all year.”
Finally, in the 1960s, Negro History Week began its evolution into Black History Month.
“By the late 1960s, as young Blacks on college campuses became increasingly conscious of links with Africa, Black History Month replaced Negro History Week at a quickening pace,” the association reported. “Within the Association, younger intellectuals, part of the awakening, prodded Woodson’s organization to change with the times. They succeeded. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, the Association used its influence to institutionalize the shifts from a week to a month and from Negro history to Black history. Since the mid-1970s, every American president, Democrat and Republican, has issued proclamations endorsing the Association’s annual theme.”
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