Black History Month: 80 Years Later
“What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.” —Carter G. Woodson
Dr Woodson, who earned his PhD in History from Harvard University (only the second African-American to receive this degree) began Black History Month (originally as “Negro History Week”) in 1926. Originally, the second week of February was chosen because it coincides with the birthdays of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and president Abraham Lincoln. Eighty-two years later, America has inaugurated its first black president.
Now the difficult part of Barack Obama’s inauguration has truly begun: How will he fare leading America amidst such great expectations and dire economic realities? Hopefully his conduct will be judged, as Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
We can hope and pray that this month with be an occasion to encourage equal treatment and understanding between all people. Further study on Black History Month is available from many sites, such as the Biography Channel’s website and Black History Canada. What does Black History Month mean to you?
Tags: black history month, history, LIFE
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Black history month is worth celebrating. Why? Because it is an opportunity for all people to acknowledge and recognize the power and the goodness of God to deliver the oppressed and the disenfranchised. That is what the LORD has done for the descendants of African-American slaves in this country; He has shown Himself to be strong on our behalf. God is no respecter of persons, but He is near to the broken-hearted. When African-Americans were oppressed under the cruel hand of slavery and later under the Jim Crow laws of the land that divided this country along color lines, God intervened. He heard the cries of the slaves and of the “negroes.” Black history goes beyond the black man’s contribution to the world. It should be about God’s faithfulness to a people who have been oppressed by people of other races in this great nation.