10 ways to celebrate Black History Month
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Caribbean Life, February 18-24, 2022 27
Black History Month, also referred
to as African American
History Month, is celebrated
each February.
Historian, author and journalist
Carter G. Woodson earned a master’s
degree from the University of Chicago
and later a Ph.D. from Harvard
University and recognized that African
Americans were largely absent
from offi cial stories of United States
history. Setting out to change that,
Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland
founded the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History in
1915, which would later be called the
Association for the Study of African
American Life and History. The organization
would go on to promote
the study of black history and celebrate
the accomplishments of African
Americans.
Moorland and Woodson’s work
would help set the course for Black
History Month. Through ASAALH
they launched “Negro History Week”
in 1926. The second week in February
was chosen because it was the birthday
week of both Frederick Douglass
and Abraham Lincoln, two instrumental
fi gures in African American
history. It would be 1976 before Black
History Month was recognized as a
national observance, though many
colleges and universities began commemorating
the event during the
American civil rights movement of
the 1960s.
Black History Month is widely
celebrated now, and often provides
educators with pivotal teaching moments.
There are many different ways
to celebrate Black History Month.
1. Businesses can invite black
field experts to come speak to employees
about topics relevant to
their specific workplaces.
2. Organizations that find they
are lacking in diversity and inclusion
practices can reevaluate recruiting,
interviewing and diversity
protocols.
3. People can plan a trip to Washington,
D.C., to visit the Smithsonian
run National Museum of African
American History & Culture.
Museum directors note it is filled
with artifacts that can help any
American better understand history
through an African American
lens.
4. Support black-owned businesses
in the area or donate to a
black organization.
5. Cook a special meal with the
family and discuss African American
history over dinner.
6. Support a charity that has a
mission of improving racial justice,
like Color of Change.
7. Read or reread Martin Luther
King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail” or his “I Have a Dream
Speech.”
8. Watch the film “Hidden
Figures”or read the book on which
it was based. The book highlights
the accomplishments of three black
female scientists working at NASA
during the Civil Rights era.
9. Focus this month’s book club
choice on a black author.
10. Study the biography of any influential
black figure from the past
or the present.
— Meetro Creative Connection
Black History Month
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