Black History Month's History

I read something about 100 years of Black History Month, so I looked it up. In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson (pictured) along with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), created "Negro History Week" for the second week of February, coinciding with the birthdays of Lincoln (Feb. 12) and Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14). African-American communities were already observing those days. In the 1930s, Negro History Week was a helpful antithesis to the growing southern "lost cause" idea that slaves had been well treated. Then, in 1969, black students and teachers at Kent State University proposed a Black History Month. The first such month happened at Kent State the following year. The observation caught on and soon was celebrated across the country. President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976 during the national Bicentennial.

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