Celebrating Black History Month

February

The month of February provides an open invitation to engage in and learn about the contributions of African Americans in American History. This is a time to help all students understand and revere the rich heritages that are theirs individually and collectively. John Hope Franklin, professor, author and chairman of the advisory board for One America: The President’s Initiative on Race, said, “We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”

That is what Carter G. Woodson believed. The son of former slaves, he spent his formative years in the coal mines of West Virginia—working to make a living for his family and himself. Woodson taught himself English and mathematics and later studied in colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. He became known as “the father of Black History.” Woodson dug deeply into the black experience, like the coal miners of this time, to extrapolate the richness of his people, culture and history. “Truth comes to us from the past like gold washed down from the mountain,” he said. He believed that one had to look back in order to move forward. It was these ideas and experiences that, in 1926, led him to initiate what was to become Black History Month.

Many school districts that have diverse student populations only incorporate a ‘heroes and holidays’ type curriculum that does not incorporate the achievements of non-European Americans. Research indicates that cultural diversity in schools and in the curriculum helps prepare students for living in a multicultural society and an interdependent world. Through an integrated curriculum that represents cultural competency including art, music, dance, economics, literature, mathematics, science, athletics, and world history, teaching and learning can be made a richer and a more complete experience for all students.

Updated: February 19, 2009 6:14 PM