February is well known as Black Historical past Month (BHM), which highlights African-American historical past and the contributions of Black individuals in the USA.
It has been nearly 100 years since Carter G Woodson, often known as “the daddy of Black historical past”, began Negro Historical past Week in 1926, which set the stage for what’s now often known as Black Historical past Month. The annual occasion is now noticed throughout a number of international locations.
What’s Black Historical past Month?
Within the US, BHM is often celebrated round a theme with actions at universities, faculties, museums and the like. This yr’s theme is the contribution of African Individuals to artwork.
These contributions are huge, from stoneware jars made by enslaved individuals to the Harlem Renaissance within the Nineteen Twenties, from the Black Arts Motion within the Nineteen Sixties to the creation of music, together with jazz, rock and hip-hop.
African-American contributions to the humanities date again tons of of years through the occasions of American slavery with the creation of the banjo, which descended from West African devices. Slavery was abolished within the US in 1865, however deep-seated anti-Black sentiment continued pushing Black tradition and historical past to the margins of American society.
The popularity of Black historical past is not only restricted to the US. Canada additionally observes Black Historical past Month in February, and the UK and Eire rejoice Black Historical past Month in October.
How did Black Historical past Month originate?
Woodson, the Black creator, selected February as a result of Frederick Douglas, an American abolitionist who escaped from slavery on the age of 20, and Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the US, had been each born in February. Lincoln is crediting with banning slavery on the finish of the Civil Battle.
Furthermore, on the time when Woodson superior the concept within the early twentieth century, the legacy of each figures had broad enchantment and cultural relevance within the US.
The shift from per week to a month started in two locations across the identical time. In Chicago, Frederic H Hammurabi Robb, a pupil activist based the Home of Information cultural centre and used that establishment to construct a neighborhood round advancing the concept of transferring Negro Historical past Week to Negro Historical past Month. Resulting from Woodson’s affect in his residence state of West Virginia, African Individuals there began to rejoice February as Negro Historical past Month.
The momentum from the civil rights motion of the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, which campaigned in opposition to racial segregation and disenfranchisement of Black individuals, would play a vital function in elevating consciousness of Black historical past in universities and civil rights organisations.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford would make Black Historical past Month official on the day the US celebrated its 2 hundredth birthday.
Ford would shut his bicentennial speech with the next: “I urge my fellow residents to hitch me in tribute to Black Historical past Month and the message of braveness and perseverance it brings to all of us.”
Black Historical past goes digital
With the recognition of TikTok and Reels on Instagram, Black digital creators have leveraged social media to current bit-sized nuggets of Black historical past. For instance, Maynard Okereke, often known as the Hip Hop MD and creator of the Hip-Hop Science Show, often makes use of hip-hop themes to narrate scientific details.
Sally McMullin makes use of her common collection Black Tales We Ought to All Know on TikTok to inform tales from the historical past of Black tradition. She even has an episode on Woodson:
@drhelena_md #Repost VC: @Sallymcmullin On Instagram I actually recognize that you simply shared this video, which touches on principally untold historic details. I actually suggest trying out her Instagram account, as she regularly posts about Black historical past. 😊 #blacktiktok #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #fyp
Dara Tucker, songwriter and social commentator, covers all the pieces from movie and tv to Black historical past. On this reel, she discusses in her collection The Breakdown a interval in 1919 often known as the “Purple Summer season”, during which white supremacist violence and racial riots spanned greater than three dozen cities all through the US.
The Public Broadcasting Service makes use of a short-form documentary format in PBS Voices to cowl areas the place popular culture and Black historical past meet.
Is Black historical past American historical past?
Sure, and a few take umbrage with the concept of Black historical past being separate from basic American historical past. There may be an try to resolve this problem and that’s the inclusion of critical race theory (CRT) and its ideas in faculties and universities.
CRT is an try at understanding how systemic racism formed public coverage within the US. CRT emerged within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties with the work of authorized students Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw and Richard Delgado.
Not too long ago, there was a political backlash in opposition to CRT in lots of US states. Some argue that CRT is just too divisive and distorts American historical past throughout simply racial strains. Whereas pro-CRT advocates see the worth of constructing consciousness round highlighting institutional shortfalls on account of systemic racism.
In April, the Vital Race Research Program on the College of California at Los Angeles launched a report, Monitoring the Assaults on Vital Race Concept, which discovered that 49 of the 50 US states have launched some type of anti-CRT measures.
Black historical past shouldn’t be restricted to only the results of systemic racism, however some argue that clarifying the historic document on how injustice has impacted the Black expertise gives readability on the broader American historic expertise.
