Students discuss the importance of Black History Month

Lórien MacEnulty Staff Writer lorien.macenulty@drake.edu @lorienmacenulty

What started in 1926 as Negro History Week, a local commemoration adopted by a few cities at the time, morphed into the nationally observed Black History Month by the late 1960s.

Despite widespread observance of the dedication to AfricanAmerican identity, the history of Black History Month has deep roots in university life across the U.S.

In mutual celebration, The Times-Delphic has assembled a profile of these cultural proceedings tied to the month of February, both at Drake and elsewhere.

The Origins of Black History Month

Historian and Harvard alumnus Dr. Carter G. Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in September 1915 as a means of uncovering and recognizing the contributions of African-Americans in various fields and endeavors.

“While attending Harvard, Carter G. Woodson was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity,” said Maleigha Williams, the chief marketing officer for the Coalition of Black Students (CBS). “Being passionate about black history education, Woodson suggested in a fraternity meeting that they should give more attention to African-American life and history.”

The organization is responsible for the association of black history with February, as Negro History week intentionally coincided with the birthday celebrations of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

The group now identifies as the Association for the Study of African-American

Life and History. Their values have remained the same, “An organization comprised of people of all walks of life and professions we are the nexus between the Ivory Tower and the global public,” according to its website.

The interest in black history increased during the Civil Rights Movement.

“It’s been a part of identity building for African-Americans, and of course the recovery of history is a very important component in that,” said Dr. Glenn McKnight, chair of Drake’s Department of History. “One of the reasons that that’s been so important is that black history has really been marginalized historically. So Black History Month has been a way of bringing African-American History more into the mainstream.”

Every president since Gerald Ford has prioritized the rededication of the month of February to the history of the country’s black identity and the discovery of their subsequent culture.

Morgan Freeman on Black History Month

Unlike U.S. presidents, not all public figures adopted the commemorative month so willingly.

In a 2005 interview with 60 Minutes, Morgan Freeman said that he found Black History Month “ridiculous.”

“What? You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman said. “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.”

Some Drake University students have similar thoughts on the subject.

“I think it is a time to recognize (black people),” said sophomore Christina Sigir. “But I also think it is a little bit praised more than it should be because, as people, they should be recognized throughout any month and not just dedicated to a certain month.”

Perspectives like Sigir’s and Freeman’s sparked controversy on a national level, inciting hundreds of conversations about the intentional differentiation of history by color and its effects on racism.

“Of course I think that black history should be celebrated all the time, but I think that Black History Month is the one time of the year where everyone is almost forced to realize that black people are great, black people are amazing, black people are very empowering,” said Deshauna Carter, Co-Senator of Equity and Inclusion on Student Senate. “We affect American history a lot, and this is the one time where people learn little things, like there wouldn’t be peanut butter if it weren’t for a black man.”

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