eNewsletter · 02/08/2011 Vol. 18

What is Black History Month?

Black History Month was founded and first celebrated in the United States. Black History Month was first referred to as "Negro History Week" when it was started in 1926. It was later changed to its current name. Black History Month was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was a son of African-American slaves and spent most of his childhood working in the coal mines of Kentucky. Although he started high school at the late age of 20, he completed his diploma in just two years. He later studied at and earned a PhD from Harvard University.

The scholar was compelled to act as he witnessed and experienced the historical silence with respect to Black history in American text books. When Blacks did appear in books they were often depicted in negative and stereotypical ways, always reflecting their inferior and disadvantaged social position at the time.

Woodson made it his mission and life's work to write African-American's experiences and lives in to the nation's history. He started this mission with the establishment of the Association for the Study of Negro Life in 1915. This organization was the beginning of the movement to spotlight the invaluable contributions Blacks have made to American culture by the creation of Negro History Week.

Why the month of February?

Woodson chose February to host the commemoration of African-American history in the United States because he was greatly influenced by Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both of whom were born that month.

Interesting and Informative Facts
for Black History Month.

BET was the first African-American controlled company to sell shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
Macon Bolling Allen was the first African-American to pass the bar and practice law in the United States in 1845.
Lawyer Macon Bolling Allen was the first black American Justice of the Peace and the first African-American licensed to practice law in the U.S.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded by Richard Allen became the first national black church in the United States in 1816.
Marian Anderson, a gifted contralto singer, was the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955.
In 1993, Maya Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration. She was the first poet to do an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost spoke for President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Writer and performer Maya Angelou worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, California, before graduating from high school.
In 1988, while at Temple University, scholar Molefi Asante founded the first Ph.D. program in African-American studies.
Arthur Ashe was the first African-American to win the U.S. Open (1968); to come in first in the Wimbeldon men's singles (1975); and be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (1985).
Lawyer Constance Baker Motley was the first African-American woman ever to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before she was tapped to become Surgeon General of the United States in 2009, physician Regina Benjamin was the first African-American female, and the youngest person, to be elected to the American Medical Association's board of trustees.
In 1983, Guion Bluford became the first black astronaut to travel in space.