WEBVTT - The Long History of Black History Month

0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.679
<v Speaker 1>Right now it is time for the way Black History Fact.

0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.840
<v Speaker 1>And since this is the beginning of Black History Month,

0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.039
<v Speaker 1>we are going to discuss the history of Black History Months.

0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:15.320
<v Speaker 1>So I'm going to share a bit from the Association

0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.320
<v Speaker 1>for the Study of African American Life and History. Okay,

0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.799
<v Speaker 1>the story of Black History Month begins in Chicago. During

0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.640
<v Speaker 1>the summer of nineteen fifteen, and alumnus of the University

0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.120
<v Speaker 1>of Chicago with many friends in the city, Cartergie Woodson,

0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.120
<v Speaker 1>traveled from Washington, d c. To participate in a national

0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.800
<v Speaker 1>celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the

0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.200
<v Speaker 1>State of Illinois. Thousands of African Americans traveled from across

0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.640
<v Speaker 1>the country to see exhibits highlighting the progress their people

0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.599
<v Speaker 1>had made since the destruction of slavery. Awarded a doctorate

0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:48.560
<v Speaker 1>in Harvard three years earlier, Woodson joined the other exhibitors

0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.120
<v Speaker 1>with a Black History display. Despite being held at the Colisseum,

0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:56.040
<v Speaker 1>the site of the nineteen twelve Republican Convention, an overflow

0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.720
<v Speaker 1>crowd of six to twelve thousand waited outside for their

0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.960
<v Speaker 1>turn to view the exhibits. Fired by the three week celebration,

0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.080
<v Speaker 1>Woodson decided to form an organization to promote the scientific

0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.840
<v Speaker 1>study of black life and history. Before leaving town on

0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.720
<v Speaker 1>September ninth, Woodson met at the Wabash YMCA with A. L.

0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 1>Jackson and three others and formed the Association for the

0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.800
<v Speaker 1>Study of Negro Life and History. A graduate member of

0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.480
<v Speaker 1>Omega sci Fi, he urged his fraternity brothers to take

0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.880
<v Speaker 1>up the work. In nineteen twenty four, they responded with

0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.600
<v Speaker 1>the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they

0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.960
<v Speaker 1>renamed Negro Achievement Week. Their outreach was significant, but Woodson

0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.240
<v Speaker 1>desired greater impact. As he told an audience of Hampton

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.000
<v Speaker 1>Institute students, quote, we are going back to that beautiful

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.480
<v Speaker 1>history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.

0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.399
<v Speaker 1>In nineteen twenty five, he decided that the Association had

0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.800
<v Speaker 1>to shoulder the responsibility going forward. It would both create

0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.640
<v Speaker 1>and popularize knowledge about the black past. He sent out

0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.120
<v Speaker 1>a press release announcing Negro History Week in February nineteen

0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.560
<v Speaker 1>twenty six. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February

0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.240
<v Speaker 1>to encompass the birthdays of the two great Americans who

0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.160
<v Speaker 1>played dominant roles in shaping Black history, namely Abraham Lincoln

0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.520
<v Speaker 1>and Frederick Douglas, whose birthdays are the twelfth and fourteenth, respectively.

0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.360
<v Speaker 1>From the beginning, Woodson was overwhelmed with the response to

0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.400
<v Speaker 1>his call. Negro History Week appeared across the country in

0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.000
<v Speaker 1>schools and before the public. The nineteen twenties was the

0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.600
<v Speaker 1>decade of the New Negro, a name given to the

0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.400
<v Speaker 1>World War One generation because of its rising racial pride

0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:26.320
<v Speaker 1>and consciousness. Urbanization and industrialization had brought over a million

0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.600
<v Speaker 1>African Americans from the rural South into some big cities

0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.840
<v Speaker 1>in the nation. In the nineteen forties, efforts began slowly

0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.000
<v Speaker 1>within the black community to expand the study of black

0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.160
<v Speaker 1>history in the schools and Black History celebrations before the

0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.240
<v Speaker 1>public and the South, Black teachers often taught Negro history

0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.120
<v Speaker 1>as a supplement to United States history. One early beneficiary

0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.080
<v Speaker 1>of the movement reported that his teacher would hide Woodson's

0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.120
<v Speaker 1>textbook beneath the desk to avoid drawing the wrath of

0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.360
<v Speaker 1>the principal sound familiar. During the Civil Rights movement in

0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.480
<v Speaker 1>the South, the Freedom schools incorporated black history into the

0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.079
<v Speaker 1>curriculum advanced social change. The Negro History movement was an

0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.920
<v Speaker 1>intellectual insurgency that was part of every larger effort to

0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.280
<v Speaker 1>transform race relations. The nineteen sixties had a dramatic effect

0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.440
<v Speaker 1>on the study and celebration of black history. Before the

0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.800
<v Speaker 1>decade was over, Negro History Week would be well on

0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.240
<v Speaker 1>its way to becoming Black History Month. The shift to

0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.080
<v Speaker 1>a month long celebration began even before doctor Woodson's death.

0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.040
<v Speaker 1>As early as nineteen forties, Blacks in West Virginia, a

0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.040
<v Speaker 1>state where Woodson often spoke, began to celebrate February as

0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.800
<v Speaker 1>Negro History Month. Okay, that was kind of in pieces,

0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.920
<v Speaker 1>So the full article is up and it's been cited.

0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.360
<v Speaker 1>This is just something from Wikipedia. Just wanted to add.

0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.280
<v Speaker 1>Black History Month was being celebrated all across the country

0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.640
<v Speaker 1>and educational institutions, centers for black culture, and community centers

0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.760
<v Speaker 1>both great and small. When President Gerald Ford recognized Black

0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.520
<v Speaker 1>History Month in nineteen seventy six during celebration of the

0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.520
<v Speaker 1>United States bysin Tenative tennial, the arge Americans to seize

0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.520
<v Speaker 1>the opportunity to honor the two often neglected accomplishments of

0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.000
<v Speaker 1>Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.

0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.680
<v Speaker 1>So that's the history of that history. To say, mm hmm,