How to Make Black History Month
Last All Year!
Activities, tips, and advice to help you motivate children to excellence through Black History and Culture.

Black Our Story, Not His Story

Copyright 2006 by Jeffery Bradley - All Rights Reserved -- Contact Info
The published version of "How to Make Black History Month Last All Year!"
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February 1st through the 28th is National Black History Month. During these short 28 days, America’s institutions recognize the mass achievements and contributions of African Americans to this country as well as the world. Also during this month, we try to pay respect to the tens of millions of Africans who died as a result of the slave trade, lynching, riots for freedom, and revolts against slavery.

This special period was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in February of 1926. Mr. Woodson was a pioneer in the study of black history who stated in the October 1927 edition of the Journal of Negro history that:

“The celebration tends not to promote propaganda but to counteract it by popularizing the truth. It is not interested so much in Negro History as it is in history influenced by the Negro; for what the world needs is not a history of selected races or nations but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. There has been, therefore, no tendency to eulogize the Negro nor to abuse his enemies. The aim has been to emphasize important facts in the belief that facts properly set forth will speak for themselves”.

Woodson chose the second week of February because two persons he felt had dramatically affected the lives of Black Americans were born during that month: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  It would be much later, in 1976, when the now-renamed Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History would succeed in promoting this week into Black History Month.

Quick Black History Notes

Black History extends far beyond what’s currently taught in the media and in our schools. To help you give your children an idea of the depth and multitude of our history, briefly listed below are a few facts.

·         Human Beings first originated in Africa 1.7 million years ago.

·         The great Egyptian civilizations were African. Egypt is located on the east coast of Africa.

·         Queen Cleopatra was a black African Queen and not Elizabeth Taylor as depicted on television.

·         The Moors of Africa occupied Spain for 800 years. They built the large castles and established strong educational systems.

·         Africans traded with Indians in North and South America before Columbus “discovered” it.

·         Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a Black doctor, performed the first open heart surgery.

·         African Americans were responsible for such inventions as the automatic transmission, refrigerated trucks and box cars, the subway, traffic light, gas mask, the alarm clock, and hundreds of others.

The above facts don’t even scratch the surface of the richness of Black History.  It is extremely important that parents make it a mission to extend Black History Month to 12 months every year because black culture is deep, wide, and the most uplifting information you can discover.

Positive African American Role Models In Black History

African American children need positive role models to help them aspire to great things. When a child fails to identify with positive role models, they choose what is available to them in their community. The role models can become the drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, gangs, or fictional TV characters.

What better place to find strong role models than in our own history? Unfortunately most of the history of the African Americans has been omitted, ignored, or removed from history books that are used by educators to teach the world. Our children are forced to learn about other cultures that they may never be a part of before learning about their own culture.

Without a deep knowledge or understanding of black history, our children can fail to develop a strong sense of belonging in our multi-cultural society. 

The Balance

It doesn’t take much observation of the media of all types (television, radio, food labels, billboards, newspapers, magazines, and computers) to realize how much our children are bombarded with images of White America.

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