Meeting Type: BCC Regular Meeting
Meeting Date: 2/18/2020
Item Status: New
From: Felisha Anderson, Archives Director
Submitted by: Felisha Anderson, Archives Director
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ITEM TITLE
Title
Black History Month - Presentation
Body
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Mr. Vinson Bradley, Dean of Student Services, Coastal Alabama Community College, will speak on the importance of Black History Month.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Previous Commission action/date: N/A
Background: February is Black History Month. Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It is an annual celebration of achievements by black people and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history.
February is a time of paying tribute to the generations of blacks who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American Society. As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W.E.B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLG), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.
By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid-century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.
The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. And the association-now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)-continues to promote the study of Black history all year
FINANCIAL IMPACT
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LEGAL IMPACT
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ADVERTISING REQUIREMENTS
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FOLLOW UP IMPLEMENTATION
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