Thursday, February 28, 2019
FEATURED
Black History Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow
This is the final day of February and we couldn’t let it pass without our special in-depth edition celebrating Black History Month. We cover the history of black history and look back at some Perspectives Media’s favorite stories from the month.
Today:
At Perspectives Media, we believe that contextualizing history requires underrepresented perspectives always be present and we find this historical context often lacking from mainstream media sources. Although there is still MUCH work to be done, today according to scholars, black history is broadly accepted as important for education thanks to work begun by Dr. Carter G. Woodson way back in the early 1900s.
Yesterday:
The fight Dr. Woodson undertook is exemplified by a quote from his 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro,
“At a Negro summer school two years ago, a white instructor gave a course on the Negro, using for his text a work which teaches that whites are superior to the Blacks. When asked by one of the students why he used such a text book the instructor replied that he wanted them to get that point of view.”
Woodson dedicated his lifelong work to change the conversation to uplifting the excavation, preservation and institutionalization of black history (then called negro history). In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) with Minister Jesse E. Moorland. In concert with other black scholars of the time, ASNLH and Woodson began Negro History Week. ASNLH has been around for 104 years and is still in operation today. Each year ASNLH creates a theme and the themes often reflect that moment in history:
1929 - Possibility of Putting Negro History in the Curriculum
1931 - Neglected Aspects of Negro History
1964 - Negro History: A Basis for the New Freedom
1971 - African Civilization and Culture: A Worthy Historical Background
1986 - Afro American Experience: International Connection
1996 - Black Women
2017 - The Crisis in Black Education
See more themes on the ASALH website.
Dr. Woodson died in 1950 but Negro History Week went from 1926 – 1976. In 1969 students at Kent State University decided it was time to expand the idea of Negro History Week to an entire month. The idea caught on with advocates around the nation who lobbied local mayors for Black History Month. In 1976, the movement for black history reached the American presidential desk when President Gerald Ford proclaimed February Black History Month across the nation. See timeline here.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Woodson and civil rights advocates throughout history, we have come a long way in teaching Black History as American History but there is still work to be done. Dr. LaGarrett J. King writes, “…despite teachers’ enthusiasm about teaching Black history, the study surmised that generally only 1 to 2 lessons or 8–9 percent of total class time is devoted to Black history in U.S. history classrooms.”
Tomorrow:
So the question becomes how do we devote more time and improve the quality of the time that is spent on Black History in every history classroom around America? Few states require learning African American history and those that do have loose guidelines that often are left up to teacher interpretation.
Instead of firing teachers for trying to develop better curriculum, we should advocate for and create a commission to actualize a national history curriculum.
On this subject, Dr. LaGarrett King goes on to write,
“The Black history curriculum needs to come from a Black perspective with topics specifically geared towards the Black experience, and many times these narratives are and need to be independent of the way we typically frame U.S. history. The curriculum will need to balance narratives of victimhood, oppression, perseverance, and resistance, but unlike current renditions of the curriculum, it should contextualize issues that connect with the present. The study of history requires learning about the identities of groups of people. History not only indicates where people have been, what they have been, where they are, and what they are; history also provides a blueprint for where they still must go and what they still must be.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
ARTICLES
-
Afro-LGBT
-
Afro-Latinx
-
Afro-Cis Women
- Valuing black women in the political arena
- Profile – Toni Morrison
- Profile – Audre Lorde
- Profile – Sojourner Truth
- Profile – Kelly Rowland
- Profile – Jamila Woods
- Profile – Jessica & Phoebe
- Profile – Cheri Beasley
- Profile - Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliott
- Oscar Winner Regina King
- History and the Oscars
- Black + Feminist – A moment with Dr. Brittney Cooper
- Black woman footballer
-
Afro-Disabled
-
Afro-Cis Men
-
Afro-Future (The Kids)
-
Afro-Other
- What is the history of a people worth?
- Reading while black
- Understanding Gang History – Autobiographical Book
- Reading while black – Historic Opening of Atlanta Book Store
- Listening while black - Code Switch podcast
- Complicating the story of Black folks through poetry – No One Tongue
- Celebrating strong black leads
- Working while black – Celebrating Workers & the legacy of Dr. King
- The activists you should know
- Dispelling the myth of the magical negro - Profile of Morgan Park
SHOUT OUTS
-
Speaking of History & Education....
The hard work of many politicians, activists, and every day people culminated in the ultimate hisorical acknowledgement of the history of black people in America. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a fantastic display of love and labor. Be sure to check out their website and support their work.
Stay in the Loop
Subscribe to our newsletter, Perspectives for Progress!