Catherine Stoddard in Fox6:
Every year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) chooses the theme for Black History Month. This year’s theme is “Black Resistance,” specifically calling out the legacy of resistance through politics, the arts, society and education. Black Americans “have resisted historic and ongoing oppression in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores,” said the ASALH, an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent.
How did Black History Month start?
Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the ASALH organization, first came up with the idea of the celebration that became Black History Month. Woodson, born in 1875 to recently freed Virginia slaves, went on to earn a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. He worried that Black children were not being taught about their ancestors’ achievements in American schools in the early 1900s. “Woodson fervently believed that Black people should be proud of their heritage and all Americans should understand the largely overlooked achievements of Black Americans,” the NAACP states on its website. Woodson originally came up with the idea of Negro History Week to encourage black Americans to become more interested in their own history and heritage and it was established in 1926.
More here. (Note: Throughout February, at least one post will be dedicated to Black History Month. The theme for 2023 is Black Resistance. Please send us anything you think is relevant for inclusion)