Join the CALS Office of Diversity and Inclusion (CALS ODI) for the Diversity Observance Reflection Reception on Tues., Feb. 28, to commemorate and celebrate the Black community and all this community has contributed to our shared national history and collective communal excellence. We’ll offer light refreshments.
Program Access Information
- Date: Tues., Feb. 28, 2023
- Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
- Location: Patterson Hall Rm. G-09
The History of Black History Month
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by Black Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history.
Harvard-trained historian, Carter Woodson’s, wanted to promote the achievements by Black Americans and other people of African descent. Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which in 1926, announced the second week of February as “Negro History Week.” The association chose February because it coincided with the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), and of Fredrick Douglas (February 14), both of which dates black communities had celebrated together since the late 19th century.
In the following decades mayors of cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing “Negro History Week.” By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil rights movement and a growing awareness of Black identity, “Negro History Week” had evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses. In 1976 President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month, during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial.
Since President Ford every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme. The Black History Month 2023 theme set by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History is “Black Resistance.” The 2023 theme “is a call to everyone, inside and outside the academy, to study the history of Black Americans’ responses to establish safe spaces, where Black life can be sustained, fortified, and respected.”
Suggestions from CALS ODI
In the spirit of celebrating the contributions and achievements of Black Americans, CALS ODI has created a Black History Month Fact Sheet, which we hope will add to everyone’s mental database of knowledge about this community. Knowing how communities contribute to our shared societies reminds us all that every community is a valuable thread in the fabric that holds us all together.
Our office also recommends that everyone who would like to learn even more about the history of the Black American community read the book “The 1619 Project,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, as this month’s diversity observance, CALS R.E.A.D. (CALS Read for Equity and Diversity Program) selection. Our office has several copies of this book in our lending library.
The CALS ODI team urges everyone in our CALS family to join us in taking time this month to acknowledge and appreciate our wonderful community and all the tremendous gifts they’ve shared which have been profoundly key in establishing the foundation of American prosperity.