Today is the last day of January — tomorrow we get into the shortest month of the year, but there’s a lot going on in February. I’ll be blogging about a lot of February’s special days throughout the month, but we shouldn’t forget that February has been designated Black History Month. Seems like racism is making a comeback in the United States, so I think we should take a few minutes to reflect on what the month is intended to honor — the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history.
We’re all at least aware of prominent figures like George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Jackie Robinson and Oprah Winfrey but there a many, many more that probably don’t get the recognition they deserve.
The celebration of Black History Month began as “Negro History Week” and was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
The Quakers were the first to protest against slavery. They were famously known as “The Society of Friends.” Four Quakers from Germantown, Pa. wrote the first protest against slavery in 1699. Drawing inspiration from the Golden Rule, the peace-loving men wrote, “Pray, what thing in the world can be done worse towards us, than if men should rob or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries, separating husbands from their wives and children….” This rare document was rediscovered in 2005 and is now part of the Haverford College Special Collections.
We should all be proud of our heritage, and a number of maybe not so well-known African Americans achieved a lot of “firsts:
Jack Johnson became the first African American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship boxing title.
John Mercer Langston was the first Black man to become a lawyer when he passed the bar in Ohio.
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate (from Mississippi.)
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives.
Hattie McDaniel was the first African American performer to win an Academy Award (for the Movie Gone With the Wind.)
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire.
Barack Obama was the first Black President of the United States
Kamala Harris is the first woman of African or Asian descent to become Vice President of the U.S.
If your knowledge of cowboys comes from the movies or TV, you may not know that a quarter (25%) of (real) cowboys were black. After the Civil War ended, the old “wild west” attracted lots of newly freed slaves seeking freedom and paid work. These “cowboys” did find a demand for their skills and freedom, but they had to contend with many physical dangers while sleeping under the stars and “riding them horses” — like inclement weather, reckless outlaws and rattlesnakes.
On February 12, 1909 a group of African American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP.) That organization will celebrate their 113the anniversary on February 12. The organization was formed on February 12, 1909 because it was the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
We’ll probably hear a lot about Black History Month over the next few weeks — we should pay attention. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from our past. No one should be proud of some of our past, but it isn’t were we came from, it’s where we’re headed that counts….
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