500 word essay on black history month

How Negro History Week Became Black History Month and Why It Matters Now

By Veronica Chambers and Jamiel Law Feb. 24, 2021

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Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States for close to 100 years. But what is it, exactly, and how did it begin?

In the years after Reconstruction, campaigning for the importance of Black history and doing the scholarly work of creating the canon was a cornerstone of civil rights work for leaders like Carter G. Woodson. Martha Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, explained: “These are men [like Woodson] who were trained formally and credentialed in the ways that all intellectuals and thought leaders of the early 20th century were trained at Harvard and places like that. But in order to make the argument, in order to make the claim about Black genius, about Black excellence, you have to build the space in which to do that. There is no room.” This is how they built the room.

On Feb. 20, Frederick Douglass, the most powerful civil rights advocate of his era, dies.

Douglass collapsed after attending a meeting with suffragists, including his friend Susan B. Anthony. A lifelong supporter of women’s rights, Douglass was among the 32 men who signed the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls, N.Y. He once said: “When I ran away from slavery, it was for myself; when I advocated emancipation, it was for my people. But when I stood up for the rights of woman, self was out of the question, and I found a little nobility in the act.”

Douglass was such an animated storyteller that, when he collapsed, his wife thought it was part of the story he was telling her about his day with the suffragists.

Washington, D.C., schools begin to celebrate what becomes known as Douglass Day.

On Jan. 12, 1897, Mary Church Terrell, an educator and community activist, proposed the idea of a school holiday to celebrate Frederick Douglass’s life at a school board meeting for the Washington-area “colored schools.” The school board agreed to set aside the afternoon of Feb. 14, 1897, the date Douglass celebrated as his birthday (he had been born enslaved and did not know his exact date of birth) for students to learn about his life, writing and speeches.

Terrell was an animal lover, and she and her husband had a beloved dog named Nogi. For years, she lobbied the Board of Education to set aside a day when Washington students would be taught and shown the importance of being kind to animals. Animal Day, as she called it, never passed.

Carter G. Woodson, the scholar now known as “the father of Black history,” was inspired to take his work nationwide.

Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875, the son of former enslaved people. He worked as a coal miner before receiving his master’s at the University of Chicago, and he was the second African-American to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard (after W.E.B. DuBois). In the summer of 1915, Dr. Woodson attended the Lincoln Jubilee celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of emancipation in Chicago, featuring exhibitions that highlighted African-Americans’ recent accomplishments. After seeing the thousands of people who attended from across the country, Dr. Woodson was inspired to do more in the spirit of honoring Black history and heritage.

According to an article in The Broad Ax, a weekly Black newspaper in Chicago, the Jubilee celebration included musical performances, garment and furniture making, and a 16-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The movement for Black History grows.

On Sept. 9, 1915, Dr. Woodson formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization to promote the scientific study of Black life and history. (Today, the organization is known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or ASALH.) In 1916, the association established The Journal of Negro History, the first scholarly journal that published researchers’ findings on the historical achievements of Black individuals.

Dr. Woodson believed that “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” To that end, he asked his Omega Psi Fraternity brothers to join him in the work of spreading the importance of Black history. The Omega Psi Fraternity created Negro History and Literature Week in 1924. But Dr. Woodson had even greater aspirations for Negro History to become a significant part of the culture across the country.

Dr. Woodson’s best-known book, “The Miseducation of the Negro,” inspired the title of the groundbreaking album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

In the 1920s, a decade of hope and possibility for Black Americans, Negro History Week begins.

Dr. Woodson believed deeply that a celebration of Black history would have lasting impact on future generations of leaders. As he reportedly told an audience of Hampton University students, “We are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.” Determined to lead the charge to study that history, Dr. Woodson announced the first Negro History Week in February 1926.

He chose February because it was the month in which both Lincoln and Douglass were born. After Lincoln’s assasination, his birthday, on Feb. 12, had been celebrated by Black Americans and Republicans. Douglass Day, which was observed on Feb. 14, had grown in popularity since Mary Church Terrell had started it in Washington in 1897. Dr. Woodson saw Negro History Week as a way to expand the celebration of these two men and encourage Americans to study the little-known history of an entire people.

Every year since 1928, Negro History Week, and later Black History Month, has centered on a theme. This year's theme is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity.”

Growing alongside the Harlem Renaissance, Negro History Week uses every platform at its disposal to spread its message.

Dr. Woodson and his colleagues set an ambitious agenda for Negro History Week. They provided a K-12 teaching curriculum with photos, lesson plans and posters with important dates and biographical information. In an article published in 1932 titled “Negro History Week: The Sixth Year,” Dr. Woodson noted that some white schools were participating in the Negro History Week curriculums and that this had improved race relations. He and his colleagues also engaged the community at large with historical performances, banquets, lectures, breakfasts, beauty pageants and parades.

L.D. Reddick, a historian, heard “the father of Negro history” speak as a child in his hometown, Jacksonville, Fla. Everything about Dr. Woodson, he remembered, produced an effect that was “electric.” As Mr. Reddick wrote, “He handled himself well upon the platform, I thought, moving about very much like a skilled boxer: never hurried, never faltering, sparring skillfully for openings, driving his blows deftly.” Mr. Reddick, who would later collaborate with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his book about the Montgomery bus boycotts, marveled that Dr. Woodson was “easily ... the most impressive speaker that I had ever heard up to that time in my life.”

For rural schools, Dr. Woodson eventually introduced special kits for Negro History Week that could include a list of suggested reading material, speeches by and photos of famous African-Americans, and a play about Black history.

After gaining in renown, Negro History Week becomes Negro History Month and then Black History Month.

Dr. Woodson lectured often in West Virginia, and citizens in that state began celebrating what they called Negro History Month in the 1940s. Dr. Woodson’s organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, formed branches across the country and Negro History Clubs began to appear in high schools. By the time Dr. Woodson died in 1950, mayors across the country supported Negro History Week.

In the 1960s, growing political consciousness among Black college students led to a push for more opportunities to study Black history. In February 1969, students and educators at Kent State University proposed the first Black History Month — and celebrated it in February 1970.

President Gerald Ford supports Black History Month as an important element of the nation’s bicentennial celebrations.

In October 1974, just months after assuming the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford met with civil rights leaders, including Vernon Jordan, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height and Jesse Jackson. As The New York Times reported, the leaders were looking for the president to “make a ‘ringing reaffirmation’ of the nation’s commitment to racial justice and moral leadership.”

Less than two years later, in February 1976, Ford did just that. Drawing on the patriotic significance of the bicentennial he issued a statement on the importance of Black History Month to all Americans. “The last quarter-century has finally witnessed significant strides in the full integration of black people into every area of national life,” he said. “In celebrating Black History Month, we can take satisfaction from this recent progress in the realization of the ideal envisioned by our founding fathers. But, even more than this, we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Every president since Ronald Reagan has issued a Black History Month proclamation.

In 2021, President Biden made his first proclamation in support of Black History Month, announcing: “We do so because the soul of our Nation will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. It is corrosive. It is destructive. It is costly. We are not just morally deprived because of systemic racism, we are also less prosperous, less successful, and less secure as a Nation.”

Why does Black History Month in particular, and the study of Black history overall, still matter so much? “There’s no question that history is and continues to be a battleground. The origin stories that we tell matter a great deal for where we set the bar and how we set the bar going forward,” noted Professor Jones, of Johns Hopkins. “So when you talk about people like Carter G. Woodson, these are men who knew that if you don’t rewrite the history of Africans and people of African descent, if you don’t rewrite the history of the United States through the lens of Black history, if you don’t make that record and if you don’t make that case, there are [false] stories that will expand and go toward rationalizing and perpetuating racism, exclusion, marginalization and more.”

Produced by Rebecca Lieberman, Deanna Donegan, Jeremy Allen, Veronica Chambers, Marcelle Hopkins, Adam Sternbergh, Dodai Stewart and Amanda Webster.

Additional reporting by Lauren Messman.

More from Black History, Continued

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Every year for a month, we celebrate the heroes of Black history. But these stories can obscure how change happens and who gets left behind.

By Imani Perry

Jan. 29, 2021

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By Veronica Chambers

Feb. 18, 2021

Black History Continued

By The New York Times

Feb. 24, 2021

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The Spectator

Personal Essays on Black History Month

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained educator, working with the Association for the Study of Negro Life established Black History Week – an opportunity to honor the largely unknown contributions of those of African descent and to celebrate the essence of a history that is integral to the narrative of America as apple pie. Nearly 100 years later (92 to be exact), black history in the United States remains incomplete, inauthentic and lopsided. The dominant narrative reinforces negative stereotypes and assumptions that devalue black and brown bodies in America. We are familiar with the common threads – school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration, educational achievement gaps to name a few. We are less familiar with (or perhaps less willing to acknowledge) the systemic and structural forces that sustain and lock in advantage; a self-reinforcing system that has been operating for hundreds of years. Moreover, often we recycle our praise for those commonly-known historical figures in black history; leaving a vast delta of information about the unique contributions of black people across disciplines and genres hidden, unacknowledged or forgotten. As an African American woman living in this moment, the promise and peril of what civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s referred to as “beloved community,” seems ever present. It is hard to remain hopeful in the midst of such palpable divisiveness, polarizing forces, coarse language and deeds that are antithetical to creating a society that is inclusive, loving and just. Those who fought, sacrificed, and died deserve our reverence and gratitude, for sure. Significantly, however, to honor the legacy of their contributions demands not only celebratory moments, but also recommitting ourselves to action toward building beloved community. Remembering the past is important to create pathways toward greater understanding, productive dialogue, cross-cultural trust and reconciliation. Discovering those core pieces of American history is vital to building these bridges. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a study reflecting our failure as a nation to adequately educate about the difficult and complex history of American slavery; treating slavery as an event rather than integral part of who we are as a country. We must honestly confront our shared history and its relationship to contemporary racial gaps and inequities. Any discussion toward building beloved community cannot take place without confronting the difficult history of American slavery because this history continues to shape our conceptions of race, who belongs and fairness. With Black History Month upon us, I’m mindful of the students, scholars, activists and ordinary citizens who found the courage to remain determined and engaged in the midst of great challenges, vulnerability and danger in order to demand basic human dignity and racial justice. In fact, it was college students and other young people who declared Black History as a month-long exploration rather than a week. Confining black history to a week or month is not the point. The heart of the matter for me is that context matters. This moment signifies our shared history—black history matters for all of us—the story of how America developed, prospered and created an imperfect union, one that continues to bear fruit in rich and complex ways. It’s about educating ourselves and discovering those foundational pieces and hard truths of American history like the enslavement of free people of African descent, genocidal acts like lynching, segregation and the discrimination of Jim Crow, along with the numerous contributions made by black people to the fabric of American life and culture, as well as its infrastructure and industrial capacity. We remember so others will not forget; to affirm and to build a better world. We cannot change that which we do not know and understand or for which we hold little or no respect and curiosity. This month and beyond, I will acknowledge with pride those whose efforts continue to inspire and make history—from the freedom fighters of the Civil Rights Movement (too numerous to name), the vibrancy of the Harlem Renaissance, Pauli Murray, Audre Lorde; to more contemporary history makers including Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, Ana Duvernay, Shonda Rhimes, Beyoncé, authors like Ibram Kendi and Isabel Wilkerson, Black Panther – the movie, to the official portraits of former President Obama and Michelle Obama, both created by black artists whose subjects and works will hang in the National Gallery for all time. Additionally, as CDO, I will continue to build our capacity to embed and infuse diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the strategic priorities of the institution and to cultivate more productive ways of engaging across differences. The goal is that SU is a place where we harness the power of our differences, embrace creative tension and grow together. I remain hopeful in the midst of challenging times because of the courageous citizens on this campus and beyond who are doing their part to build a more just and humane society—toward beloved community. – Natasha Martin Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion

I’m half Black, half Cuban. Growing up my father never spoke Spanish in the house and I never asked why. My father was a man that never saw color, he always believed you should “trust the soul of a man rather than the look of him.” (Remember the Titans–Coach Yoast). In Petersburg, Va., where I was born and raised, my father became the first Negro in the 60’s to drive a city bus. At the time this was unheard of. He battled his way through racism, and other challenges of negative behavior because he was the only black bus driver for Petersburg Va. Transit Co. (see cover photo). I can remember my mother telling me a story about father’s first week at work. She described it as “hell pure”. Your father pulls up and says, “good morning everyone.” The white passengers were furious and they would not board the bus. So, a group of blacks walked pass the group of white passengers and boarded the bus, deposited their fare and said, “good morning.” After a few minutes the white passengers began to board the bus. They shouted racial slurs, they spit on my father and other passengers and said “hey nigger whose bus did you steal?” as they walked passed him. On top of that, they didn’t pay their fare. When all the passengers got seated, my father put the bus in park and removed his seat belt and stood up. He wasn’t a small man. He stood tall at a height of 6ft 5inches. He began to speak to all the passengers on the bus. This is what he said, “I’m the bus driver and this my route, but if I’m the driver of this bus, you will not disrespect me, put your hands on me or spit on me. Lastly if you have a problem with what I said or I have offended you, you can just remove yourself from my bus.” He returned to his seat, fastened his seat belt, and put the bus in gear and started driving toward Downtown Petersburg. During the bus ride the atmosphere on the bus was so silent you could hear a pin drop. After about a 50-minute bus ride, the bus arrives in Downtown Petersburg. The bus comes to a stop and my father opens the door and all passengers began to exit. As white passengers walked past my father to exit the bus, they deposited their fare and shook my fathers hand and apologized to him and the last white passenger asked if they would we him see later that day, to which my father responded, “yes you will and I will get you home safe to your family.” Black History Month, to me, means a celebration of knowledge. It’s a reflection of the past, present and future in African American Culture. It’s a reminder of all the positive and innovative things that have come from our culture and how it made a huge impact on future generations. It is a time for everyone to experience culture and the roots of many things that have evolved from those of African American decent. Also it’s a time to inform everyone who may not be exposed to African American History the rest of the year. Let’s all take the time to remember the hardships and struggle, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s a remembrance of what we strive for and how the ones before us have paved a way for the things we have today. – Ricco Bland Public Safety Officer

My grandmother was the most influential person in my life until her death in 1997. Today, I draw inspiration both from her memory and the legacy of love and compassion she left behind. I experienced a safe, secure, loving childhood that occurred at the valuable intersection of two circumstances; the youth of my parents and the love of my grandmother. I was positioned to witness the broad range of painful human experiences and given a unique set of assets and blessings that allowed me the ability to develop and grow my understanding of the world I inhabit. Early in my upbringing, my grandmother introduced me to the writings of W.E.B. DuBois. And while I was not fully capable on my own of making sense of his writings as a youngster, the messages of his experiences spoke truth to my reality as I began to mature and grow in my understanding of the world around me. His words of the early 1900s still ring true for me today and underscore the significance of Black History Month in my life so I share them with you in that spirit. After the Egyptian and the Indian, the Greek and the Roman, the Teuton and the Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. (DuBois, 1903) Accordingly, Black History Month is less a month and more a movement that remains alive in me with each breath I take. It is represented in my family who gave me voice and liberated me from the poor rural up bringing that shackled so many before and after me. Black History Month is about deliverance, freedom, reframing experiences, renaming reality and retelling the truth. H. Alexander Welcome (2004) asserted: The life histories of Whites are used as the standard against which Blacks are encouraged to strive. The employment of this ontology fallaciously limits the range of Black agency, producing deceitful narratives where the navigation of the social environment by Blacks is dictated by either a passive response to, or a passive adoption of, White scripts. The utilization of whiteness to determine and/or evaluate blackness begins when whiteness and White life histories come to represent what is “right.” (p. 61) Black History is about transformation, consciousness, definition, and debunking myths and lies. It is represented in the narratives and oral histories of my ancestors told to me by my grandparents and parents and to be shared forward with my own children and the generations to come. It is about an increased understanding of the contributions of Black people throughout our muddled history. It is ultimately about truth and reconciliation. – Alvin Sturdivant Vice President, Student Development

Picture Detroit, Michigan in the 1970’s and you can begin to imagine my childhood. By the time I was ten years old, the mayor of Detroit was a black man, Coleman Young. The superintendent of public schools, Arthur Jefferson, was also a black man. I was blessed to grow up in times permeated by James Brown (“I’m black and I’m proud), the Black Panthers, dashikis, afro hair, and going every Sunday to Triedstone Baptist Church and later Detroit’s Afro-American Mission. In my memory, I hear people reminding me that the history of my race was something of which to be proud. Calendars my parents received from black businesses in town served as black history storybooks. (I honestly can’t remember if they were sent by funeral homes or insurance agencies.) Every year, we received a new calendar depicting black people succeeding in various fields such as Dorie Miller, a Navy gunner killed at Pearl Harbor and honored for his bravery, and Ida B. Wells, the journalist and sociologist who brought lynching into the national consciousness. Black history was not confined to a month at my public school. Yet, February afforded an opportunity for heightened reflections on what it meant to be black in America. Today, February still feels like a time to remember, to catch hold of the past and allow it to inspire me in the present. I recently joked with a friend that I should write a book titled “The Re-education of this Negro” as I have struggled with the times – police brutality against young black men and women, regular reminders of mass incarceration and injustice under the law. At times, the bleakness of the current day overwhelms me. I wish I could say that seeing all of the wrongs propels me toward solutions but at times I feel immobilized by the weight of racism. In contrast, it seems to me that Dr. Woodson called black people to have a knowledge of history because an understanding of the accomplishments of one’s forbears was essential to inspiration, aspiration, and justice. Increasingly, as I struggle with this present darkness I feel the need to draw on the dreams and victories of those who came before. I want to remember how they maintained faith and laughter as well as how tears and sorrow drove them forward. What’s black history month to me? It is both a call and a light. Black history month is the call of many voices saying “Remember. Press on.” Black history month is a light in the darkness that shows a way forward. Black history is about more than a month but this month reminds me to pause and locate myself within history. – Holly Slay Ferraro Associate Professor, Management

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Black History Essay Topics

• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Black history is full of fascinating stories, rich culture, great art, and courageous acts that were undertaken within unthinkable circumstances. While Civil Rights events are the most common themes in our studies, we should resist equating Black history only with Civil Rights-era history. This list contains 50 prompts that might lead you into some interesting and little-known information about Black American history.

Note: Your first challenge in studying some of the topics below is finding resources. When conducting an internet search, be sure to place quotation marks around your search term (try different variations) to narrow your results.

• Black American newspapers
• Black Inventors
• Black soldiers in the American Revolution
• Black soldiers in the Civil War
• Buffalo Soldiers
• Buying time
• Camp Logan Riots
• Clennon Washington King, Jr.
• Coffey School of Aeronautics
• Crispus Attucks
• Domestic labor strikes in the South
• Finding lost family members after emancipation
• First African Baptist Church
• Formerly enslaved business owners
• Freedom's Journal
• Gospel music
• Gullah heritage
• Harlem Hellfighters
• Harlem Renaissance
• Harriet Tubman
• Historically Black Colleges
• History of rock-and-roll
• Jumping the broom
• Manumission papers
• Maroon villages in the eighteenth century
• Motown Records
• Multi-cultural pirate ships
• Narratives by Enslaved People
• Otelia Cromwell
• Ownership of property by enslaved people
• Purchasing freedom
• Ralph Waldo Tyler
• Register of Free Persons of Color
• Secret schools in antebellum America
• Sherman's March followers
• Susie King Taylor
• The Amistad
• The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• The Communist Party (involvement)
• The Great Migration
• The Haitian Revolution
• Tuskegee Airmen
• Underground Railroad
• Urban enslavement (related to buying time)
• Wilberforce College, Ohio
• 100 Persuasive Essay Topics
• Celebrating Black History Month
• Important Cities in Black History
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1900–1919
• What Is Black History Month and How Did It Begin?
• Black History Timeline: 1910–1919
• Black History Month Printables
• Black History Timeline: 1920–1929
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1920-1929
• Black History Timeline: 1940–1949
• Black History Timeline: 1700 - 1799
• Biography of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black Historian
• Black History and Women Timeline 1870-1899
• Black History from 1950–1959
• Little Known Important Black Americans
• Black History Timeline: 1960–1964

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Black History Month art, essay contest opens for Florida students

Black History Month (WFTV)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Education and Volunteer Florida has launched an academic and creative contest for elementary, middle and high school students.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis announced the 2023 Black History Month Art and Essay Contest.

Black History Month is celebrated every year in February.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating the Achievements of African American Floridians.”

Read: Report shows challenges to mental health training in Brevard Public Schools

Art Contest

The art contest is open to all kindergarten through third-grade students. Each student will submit original 2-D artwork based on the theme. The committee will choose four winners and each winner will receive a $100 art supplies gift card and a 1-year pass to Florida state parks.

Read: What we know about AP African American Studies, and why Florida doesn’t want it

Essay Contest

The essay contest, which is open to all fourth through twelfth-grade students, will have a total of 10 winners, with the following categories:

• Two elementary school students, grades 4 through 5
• Two middle school students, grades 6 through 8
• Two high school students, grades 9 through 12

Students need to write a maximum 500-word essay based on the theme of an African American Floridian who had a notable effect on the community.

Each winner will receive a 2-year Florida College Plan scholarship from the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and a $100 gift card for school supplies.

Read: New state rules on education pose concerns for Orange County Public Schools

Excellence in Education Award

Students, parents, teachers, and principals can nominate full-time educators of all grades for the Black History Month Excellence in Education Award.

Award winners will receive $2,500 from Volunteer Florida.

The art and essay scholarship contests will run through Feb. 7. For more information about how to submit entries and nomination forms, click here .

Watch this video below:

Central Florida Spotlight: Black History Month (WFTV)

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.

©2022 Cox Media Group

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An Essay on Black History Month

By lawyer, activist and ceo angela rye.

By Google Arts & Culture

Words by Angela Rye

Activism begins with a very important question: why NOT me or why NOT you or why NOT us? And the answer: this – whatever “this” is: Slavery/mass incarceration, lynchings/police killings, Dr. King’s concept of shedding nobodyness/BLM, MeToo)—this shall not be.

My Dad named me after Angela Davis, a scholar and activist most known for her work with the Black Panther Party. Our name means "bringer of truth" or "messenger of God." For me, that meant telling my teachers when history books misrepresented black people. My Dad is the same dude that ran one of the Panthers’ Free Breakfast programs from his job – Central Area Motivation Program. My Dad is a bullhorn-toting, large banner–waving protestor. He loves to march and protest–well, I don’t know if he loves to, but he definitely doesn’t miss the opportunity to engage in protest. When people ask my Dad how he’s doing, he normally replies: “I’m just out here fighting this racism, man.” That statement is normally followed by him spouting statistics about disparities in contracting, education, or the criminal justice system in Washington state. All proof that racism is alive and well. I didn’t get bit by the protesting and marching bug like my Dad and I, in fact, have shunned the term “activist” for most of my adult life. Being a lawyer, I suppose I believed activism was a less strategic form of ensuring advancement for our people. And I was wrong. I didn’t always agree with Dad on the means, but we certainly agree on the end goal. Racism must die. THAT I have always agreed with. As the child of a protestor, I grew up singing ‘power to the people, the people’s power.’ I grew up SINGING “We shall overcome” but not SEEING it. We’d say: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” But where was justice?

Angela Rye for Black History Month

Angela Rye, photo by Alexander Laurent courtesy of Mass Appeal

We chanted “Power to the people, the people’s power...getting stronger by the hour.” But was it really? At an early age my mom took me to see a Bobby Seale lecture. He had me at “All power to the people.” I was IN! All power to the people meant trying to determine how to re-start the Black Panther Party, which proved to be challenging at our all-girls, predominantly white Catholic school. So I settled for starting a Black Student Union with my best friend. All power to the people meant serving on a committee developed by the Seattle police chief, to address excessive force and police brutality in my hometown. It meant serving as a youth chaplain to the King County Juvenile Detention Center while I was in college. It meant running a computer lab at a community center, so people like me had access to technology. It meant tutoring black high school students to make sure they got into college.

Knowing the history instilled in me from my parents, I knew we’d been at this a long time, the sacrifice of our ancestors activism too often resulting in death or imprisonment – Nat, Denmark, Huey, Afeni. With progress there’s always a step backwards, but that step backwards did not mean the people’s power was gone. It just meant we needed more to preserve the change we sought and continue to seek. So I began to pursue power for good – again. It is with that willpower that I will fight for every BLACK LIFE that mattered, that matters, and that will matter. And it is with that will power that I will continue to engage in work that will make freedom a reality for the next generation – in the face of the all obstacles, including the false equivalency that “BOTH SIDES” are to blame. My activism is for everyone taking a knee who knows we weren't considered in the Declaration of Independence, the National Anthem, or this country’s flag. I stand on the shoulders of amazing women like Assata and Harriet and Sojourner and Dorothy and Angela and Ida and Queen Maxine and Tarana – every Black woman freedom fighter who made EVERY movement we’ve known in this country possible.

My activism is rooted in love because love will fuel the flame that empowers us to protect our power, our justice, and our freedom. Whether it’s sharing a hashtag on social media, using my platform to spread truth on issues impacting our community, challenging the community to be more diligent about supporting our businesses and our organizations – my activism is not optional. Now when people ask me how I am doing…too often I reply like my father: just out here fighting this racism, man. I pray neither of us will have to say that much longer. It’s time for racism to die. It's time to not just STAY woke, it's time to WORK woke. Our brighter future depends on it.

Words by Angela Rye | Photo by Alexander Laurent courtesy of Mass Appeal

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Black History

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s.

Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Black History Month

February is dedicated as Black History Month, honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history.

Black History Milestones: Timeline

Black history in the United States is a rich and varied chronicle of slavery and liberty, oppression and progress, segregation and achievement.

Coretta Scott King

After her husband became pastor, Coretta Scott King joined the choir at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Hear two of her friends and members of the congregation remember Mrs. King’s legacy and her voice.

When Segregationists Bombed Martin Luther King Jr.’s House

On January 30, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously strikes down segregation in public schools, sparking the Civil Rights movement.

How the Montgomery Bus Boycott Accelerated the Civil Rights Movement

For 382 days, almost the entire African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses, a turning point in the American civil rights movement.

The Black Explorer Who May Have Reached the North Pole First

In 1909 African American Matthew Henson trekked with explorer Robert Peary, reaching what they claimed was the North Pole. Who got there first?

How Madam C.J. Walker Became a Self-Made Millionaire

Despite Jim Crow oppression, Walker founded her own haircare company that helped thousands of African American women gain financial independence.

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier

Black innovators changed the way we live through their many innovations, from the traffic light to the ironing board.

Harlem Renaissance: Photos From the African American Cultural Explosion

From jazz and blues to poetry and prose to dance and theater, the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century was electric with creative expression by African American artists.

This Day in History

Martha Jones becomes first Black woman to receive a U.S. patent

Martin luther king jr. writes “letter from a birmingham jail”, misty copeland becomes american ballet theater’s first black principal dancer, mae jemison becomes first black woman in space, harlem riot of 1935, rebecca lee crumpler becomes first black woman to earn a medical degree.

Morningside Campus Access Updates

Faculty, Staff, Student - February 19, 2021

What Does Black History Month Mean To You?

In celebration of Black History Month, the Student Life team asked students, faculty, alumni, and staff for quotes and thoughts about the importance of the season. Below is a compilation of the thoughts and experiences members of our community chose to share.

McSteve Ezikeoha, M.S. in Actuarial Science

"Black is beautiful, Black is excellent. Black is pain, Black is joy, Black is evident. Black is so much deeper than just African-American. Black is growing up around the barbershop. Black is stepping in for your mother because your father's gone. Black is being forced to leave the place you love because there's hate in it. Black is struggling to find your history or trace your roots. Black is being strong inside while facing defeat. Black is being guilty until proven innocent. But Black is all I know, there ain't a thing that I would change in it." Culled from Santan Dave's "Black"

Nia Hill, M.S. in Nonprofit Management

Black History Month is a reminder to all Americans that their country would not be as wealthy and sustainable today if it were not for the innovation, hard work, intellect, and courage of Black Americans that came before us. There are so many to give credit to! Just know that for me, because of the innumerable amount of Black folk that dedicated their lives to change, Black History Month re-affirms the fact that I, a proud Black woman, have no excuse to not impact my community, this nation, and ultimately the world.

Victor Oko, M.S. in Technology Management

Black History Month is about appreciating and recognizing key African American achievements.

Annette Parkins, M.A. in Social-Organizational Psychology

To me, Black History Month is a celebration of how far I've come in disappearing the shame around my identity, a season to honor our ancestors and their hidden contributions, and a time of reflection on the work still to be done.

Rachel Williams, '19SPS, M.S. in Strategic Communication

Black history month is a celebration of our ancestors and their excellence, motivation to always strive for the greatness that lies beyond our current circumstances, a sense of community, the task to create better paths for our successors, and the constant reminder that; without black history, there would be no history.

Rachel Oatis, '19SPS, M.S. in Nonprofit Management

Black History Month (BHM) for me is a reminder that Black is love and it has an undeniable unifying factor. With the outward exhibited forms of affection and love during the month of February, I reflect with others on why I’m so proud to be Black and love it. Don’t get me wrong..it’s always a good day to be Black and a Black woman but, during BHM there’s a special recognition universally that is bonded to this feeling. BHM is an invitation for others to join in the ongoing celebration of Blackness. It is unity in its highest form.

Damian Murray, M.S. in Technology Management

Black history month is celebrating the positive impact and the contributions that we have given to the world. It's black history month, real-life documentation of what our people are cable of accomplishing no matter the difficulties. Anything is possible.

Kayden Molock, M.S. in Sports Management

Black History Month means the appreciation and acknowledgement of Blackness and how it permeates all aspects of society. It’s the recognition of people and a culture that transcends the racist and imperial formations of the United States. It is a celebration of Black men, women, nonbinary, trans, disabled folx. It’s a reminder that the level of reverence shown during this month is something that needs to be consistent the entire year. It’s a call to action to continue to advocate for and uplift those within society who are often pushed to the margins.

Meghan Sowersby, M.S. in Strategic Communication

Black History cannot be contained or limited to a month. But it is a good reminder of Black peoples’ indelible imprint on world history.

Mydashia Hough, SPS Student Advisor

Black History Month is about our ancestors, change-makers, and revolutionaries -- whose names we know as well as those unheard of and forgotten. For many, the fruits of their labor were never seen or enjoyed, and we owe many of our freedoms to their efforts. We often relish the stories and legends but should gift our gratitude to the human side of the individuals who dedicated parts of themselves to better our world, and to have this be a regular practice that extends beyond a month in February, but penetrates the very fabric of our educational institutions and society.

Melissa Miller, SPS Leadership Coach

Black History Month is an opportunity to proudly shine a light on the Black diaspora's multifaceted histories and unsung historical figures. BHM encourages us to recognize our past, evaluate our present, and plan for our future. Lastly, it galvanizes and serves as a reminder of the tremendous work we have to continue to do all year long towards eradicating social injustices.

Andrea Stokes, M.S. in Nonprofit Management

Black History Month is the opportunity to engage with and embrace the contributions set forth by the African Diaspora. It’s also an opportunity to understand the struggles Black people around the world face, but also celebrate our resilience. Most importantly, this month reminds me of the beauty of being Black, and the diversity of our people and culture.

Clement Gibson, M.S. in Strategic Communication

Black History Month is a time when leaders and innovators of this country receive their flowers for their sacrifices, hard work, and creativity in the United States. It is a time shed light on shaded truths (and lies) of the past and acknowledge those who blazed trails we may not see in textbooks, or hear in lecture halls outside of HBCU's. It is a time to say thank you to those who labored for the fruits we enjoy today.

Erica Davis, '20SPS, M.S. in Strategic Communication

Black History means taking ALL that wasn't given then and making opportunities for today--honoring those who entrenched themselves on the battlefield for me. Sign up! Sign up! Serve today as Black History Month is a precious reminder that there is still so much work to be done in our communities and identifiable progress that my brothers and sisters must make. 

Black History has a sharp edge of holding myself accountable to continue to build bridges between law enforcement and the community. 

Black History teaches me new ways to strategically communicate with someone who doesn’t look like me... understand me.

Black History will always be the book I read.

Chelsea Hannah, M.S. in Strategic Communication

Black History Month is an important time to celebrate the impact of African American culture in the past, present and reminds us of hope and opportunity for the future. This year, it means so much to me because my position as the Chair of the Youth Task Force for Meaningful Change at Universal Music Group calls for taking time during this month to highlight and recognize all of the achievements of African Americans within the music industry and inspiring others to carry on the legacy. Coming from a family of pioneers, this month also reminds me of the endless possibilities in the world to be so much greater. I look forward to matching the same energy of those that came before me and leaving an impact that is greater than myself.

Kandis Thorpe, M.S. in Social Work, School of Social Work 

Black History Month to me is about Black liberation and getting closer to my roots by acknowledging and highlighting the pioneers who came before us. It means to look at our past, present, and future as a collective and continuing the work our ancestors has started. BHM means an emphasis on literacy. It’s very important in learning Black history. To dig into the depths of what was left out of the history books and class curriculums is empowering yet sparks drive within me to continue my work of dismantling oppressive systems within my field of social work.

Joshua Mackey, Assistant Director of Student Affairs, School of the Arts

Black History Month means acknowledging, honoring, and celebrating the history of Black folks. I also see it as a time to shed light on how the Black community continues to advance culture, industry, and society, even in the midst of all the injustices we still face as a community.

Home — Essay Samples — History — African American History — Black History Month and Reasons To Celebrate It

Black History Month and Reasons to Celebrate It

• Categories: African American History Racial Discrimination

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Words: 383 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 383 | Page: 1 | 2 min read

Table of contents

Historical context, commemorating achievements and contributions, promoting social justice and equality, educational significance.

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