Transcript The Month of History - Ball State University

The Month of History
By: Ricardo Lopez-Fajardo
Brief History of the Month
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Americans have recognized black history annually since 1926, first as "Negro
History Week" and later as "Black History Month." What you might not know is
that black history had barely begun to be studied-or even documented-when the
tradition originated. Although blacks have been in America at least as far back as
colonial times, it was not until the 20th century that they gained a respectable
presence in the history books.
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We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study
of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents who were former
slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in
high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to
earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that
history books largely ignored the black American population-and when blacks did
figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social
position they were assigned at the time.
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Woodson, always one to act on his ambitions, decided to take on the challenge of writing black
Americans into the nation's history. He established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915, and a
year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he launched Negro
History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people
throughout American history.
Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the
birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass
and Abraham Lincoln. However, February has much more than Douglass and Lincoln to show for its
significance in black American history. For example:
February 23, 1868:
W. E. B. DuBois, important civil rights leader and co-founder of the NAACP, was born.
February 3, 1870:
The 15th Amendment was passed, granting blacks the right to vote.
February 25, 1870:
The first black U.S. senator, Hiram R. Revels (1822-1901), took his oath of office.
February 12, 1909:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded by a group of
concerned black and white citizens in New York City.
February 1, 1960:
In what would become a civil-rights movement milestone, a group of black Greensboro, N.C., college
students began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.
February 21, 1965:
Malcolm X, the militant leader who promoted Black Nationalism, was shot to death by three Black
Muslims.
The Black National Anthem
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Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught
us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought
us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.
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Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been
watered, We have come, treading our path through the
blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
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God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where
we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we
forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
By: James Weldon
Johnson
Julia Carson
US Politician
• Born: 7/8/1938
• Birthplace: Louisville, KY
• Died: 12/15/2007
•Elected to the Indiana House of Reps in
1972.
• In 1976, she was elected to the Indiana
State Senate – She remained for 14
years.
• In addition, she worked as an executive
for Cummins Engine Co.
• Operated her own small clothing
business.
• She won the election in 1996 to the U.S.
Congress and was reelected in 1998,
2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006.
• During these terms she sponsored
legislation that aimed:
•Increase funding for schools
•Curbing the abuses of managed
health care
•Increasing food safety
•Blocking children’s access to
hand guns
Benjamin Franklin
Muhammad
Civil rights and religious leader
• Born: 1948
• Birthplace: Oxford, North Carolina
•Youth Coordinator for the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
•Was one of 10 men wrongly
imprisoned after leading a
demonstration in the late 1970s
• A minister in the United Church of
Christ
• Headed the UCC Commission for
Racial Justice
• Director of the NAACP in 1993
• National Director of the Million Man
march in Washington, D.C.
• Converted to Islam in 1997 and
changed his surname Chavis to
Muhammad
Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson
political leader, clergyman,
civil rights activist
• Born: 1941
• Birthplace: Greenville, South Carolina
•Attended the Chicago Theological
Seminary and was ordained as a
Baptist minister.
•Active in the Civil-rights Movement
•Founded Operation PUSH (People
United to Save Humanity) – org. to
combat racism
• Since 1986 he has been the President
of the National Rainbow Coalition.
• He is an effective public speaker
• Campaigned for the Democratic
nomination for president, becoming
the first African American to contend
seriously for the position.
Sarah Breedlove Walker
businesswoman,
philanthropist
•Born: 12/23/1867
•Birthplace: Delta, Louisiana
•Died: 5/25/1919
•Also known as Madame C.J. Walker
•Invented a process in 1905 for
straightening the hair of AfricanAmericans
•Her process boomed and she started
to get money
• Married Charles J. Walker and started
to promote her product and the
process under Madame C.J. Walker
•Formed Madame C.J. Walker
Laboratories in Indianapolis
•Here she developed products
•And trained her beauticians “Walker
Agents”
Crispus Attucks
American Revolutionary
Patriot
• Born: 1723
• Birthplace: Boston
• Died: 1770
• Mixed with African and American
Indian ancestry
• The slave of William Brown
• Escaped in 1750 to work on whaling
ships.
• Was the leader of the 50 men in the
protest on March 5, 1770
• Was killed by British Soldiers during
the protest
• his funeral was attended by 10,000
people
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
journalist, activist
• Born: 1862
• Birthplace: Holly Springs, Mississippi
• Died: 1931
•Parents died when she was 14
• She was an outspoken, young free
woman by 1891
• Helped found the newspaper
Memphis Free Speech
•Began to publish articles denouncing
the outbreak of lynchings in the south
• Influence grew and was not safe to
live in Memphis, so moved to Chicago
• Kept working to promote civil rights
and women’s suffrage.
• Became one of the original founders
of the NAACP in 1909