Black History Month has a lengthy history that dates back more than a century. According to History.com, historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in September 1915. Promoting the achievements of Black Americans was among the various missions of the ASNLH. One of the ways the ASNLH sought to achieve that mission was through the establishment of Negro History Week in 1926. Organizers chose the second week of February for the event because that week happened to be when Abraham Lincoln (1809) and Frederick Douglass (1818) were born. Lincoln and Douglass played pivotal roles in the abolition of slavery in the United States. After the establishment of Negro History Week in 1926, more and more cities began to celebrate it. History.com notes that by the 1960s Negro History Week had evolved into Black History Month on college campuses, eventually leading to formal recognition of the event by American president Gerald Ford in 1976.
Milestone Moments in Black history
As Americans prepare to celebrate Black History Month, they can consider these milestone moments in Black history.
· Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in 1831. Nat Turner was born into slavery on October 2, 1800, in rural Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s intellect was notable since he was a boy, and that undoubtedly played a role in his ability to orchestrate a slave revolt that began on August 21, 1831. Turner led a group of roughly 75 enslaved people on a four-day rebellion. Though the uprising was quickly suppressed and Turner was ultimately hanged on November 11, 1831, the revolt strengthened anti-slavery sentiments in the northern United States.
· The NAACP is founded in 1909. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was an interracial effort founded by a collection of individuals, included W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells, who aspired to advance justice for Black Americans. The NAACP, which History.com notes had expanded to encompass 400 branches within 12 years of its inception, fought against numerous injustices over the years, including anti-lynching efforts in the twentieth century and has also promoted programs and policies designed to place African Americans on equal economic footing with whites.
· Willie O’Ree breaks the color barrier in the National Hockey League in 1958. O’Ree was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on October 15, 1935. O’Ree’s grandparents escaped slavery in the United States through the Underground Railroad and eventually settled in Canada. A winger whose playing career would last until 1979, O’Ree became the first black player to take the ice in an NHL game when he debuted with the Boston Bruins on January 18, 1958. Amazingly, O’Ree reached the pinnacle of professional hockey despite having been blinded in one eye two years prior to his debut with the Bruins, who had no knowledge of O’Ree’s diminished vision. Equally notable is that O’Ree had met American baseball player Jackie Robinson when the former was 15-years-old. Robinson had broken the Major League Baseball color barrier on April 15, 1947, an appearance that is considered a watershed moment in Black history.
There are no shortage of milestone moments in Black history in the United States. These moments, and the people involved in them, merit celebration and attention.
Black History landmarks
Various locations across the country have born witness to the notable achievements of Black Americans throughout history. These are the places where musicians penned hits or where Civil Rights leaders crafted speeches or everyday individuals stood together in solidarity. Such sites merit consideration as the nation celebrates Black History Month.
· Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station: Freedom Riders were attacked by a local mob at this Alabama bus station on May 20, 1961, catching the attention of the national and international public and shedding light on the Civil Rights struggle.
· Congo Square: This location in New Orleans was one of the few places where enslaved Africans were allowed the freedom to dance and make music, making it an important location in African American history. It is often cited as the oldest Black neighborhood in America.
· Civil Rights Trail: This is a national trail that stretches across 15 states and 100 locations. Among the locations are the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was the location of a police confrontation during the Selma, Alabama Civil Rights marches.
· African Meeting House, Boston: This small place of worship was built in the early 1800s and is one of the oldest Black churches in the country. It served as a school, church and meeting house, and Black Bostonians organized here to push for the abolition of slavery.
· Tuskegee University: This school in Alabama was part of the expansion of education for Black people in the south after the American Civil War. It is a historically Black college, which first opened in 1881 as Talladega College.
· Little Rock Central High School: This school in Arkansas is the place where the first major confrontation concerning the implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 took place.
· Colored Musicians Club: Located in Buffalo, NY, this is the only continuously operating, all-Black-owned jazz club in the U.S. It opened in 1917 and became a place for Black musicians to socialize and play music. Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington are among the greats who have played there.
· Carter G. Woodson Home-Office: This building in Washington, D.C. is now known as the Carter G. Woodson National Historic Site. Without Woodson, there might not be a Black History Month, as he is considered the father of African American history. Woodson worked and lived out of this location when he created Negro History Week.
· Whitney Plantation: Many plantations were once places where individuals were forced into slavery. The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana is now a museum dedicated to educating the public on the history of slavery.
Many places of historical significance tell the story of Black Americans.
Get to know these influential Black Americans
The number of Black Americans who have made contributions to the country and the world are innumerable. Here is just a brief cross-section of some of the trailblazing individuals worthy of recognition.
Shirley Chisholm
Although the United States Congress is now diverse, it wasn’t always this way. Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress during the racially contentious era of the late 1960s. She represented New York’s twelfth district from 1969 to 1983 and was the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972.
Richard Allen
Allen was a minister, educator and writer based in Philadelphia. Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the first independent Black denomination in the U.S. Allen was born into slavery, but bought his freedom in the 1780s. Because of restrictions dictating where Blacks could sit at church, Allen left to form his own.
Bayard Rustin
Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is often credited with the 1963 March on Washington, it actually was Rustin who organized and strategized the event. Ruskin had controversial ties to Communism and was a gay man, so he wasn’t always publicly on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement. Nonetheless, his brilliant mind and innovative ideas helped serve his community.
Medgar Evers
Many people tirelessly contributed to the Civil Rights movement, and Evers is one of them. Evers was a World War II veteran and later a civil rights leader in Mississippi. He became the NAACP’s first field officer in that state and helped lead protests against segregation at schools, public parks and more.
Dorothy Height
Height is known as the “godmother of the women’s movement.” She used her experience in social work and education to advance women’s rights, becoming a strong leader in the Young Women’s Christian Association and the president of the National Council of Negro Women.
Arthur Ashe
Ashe was the first Black player selected to the United States Davis Cup tennis team and the only Black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. Ashe suffered a heart attack during a tennis clinic, so he became a spokesperson for hereditary heart disease. Later, when he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion used during a heart surgery, he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS. Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
Kobe Bryant
The basketball world mourned in 2020 when Bryant and his daughter, Gigi, tragically perished in a helicopter crash. An NBA star who won five championships and a member of the gold-winning U.S. men’s Olympic basketball teams in 2008 and 2012, Bryant also was an advocate for the homeless. His Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation sought to reduce the homeless population in Los Angeles.
Mae Jemison
Jemison holds the honor of being the first Black woman to orbit space. She was on the shuttle Endeavour, and also is a physician and teacher. After leaving NASA, Jemison founded the Jemison Group, which develops technological advancements.
Trailblazing Black Americans have been influencing the country throughout its history.
