In 1976, President Gerald Ford, made Black History Month aka, African American History month, replacing Negro History Week and making it a national holiday. The second week of February was picked to coincide with Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12th.
Negro History Week was originally declared by the Association formerly known as the for the Study of Negro Life and History, which changed its name in 1973 to The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and is currently known as The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, although that term is now deemed by many to be outdated.
The National Council for Black Studies also began from this important organization.
Defining these terms is contentious and is a very sensitive topic with significant implications. Are recent immigrants, even those descended from upper class or African nobility, “Black”? Are Somalis Black? Is Elon Musk an African-American?
The answer to many of these questions is, “It depends.”
We know Rachel Dolezal, (Nkechi Amare Diallo) former president of the Spokane, WA Chapter of the NAACP is NOT Black, yet depending on who you ask BLM, activist Shaun King IS Black.
I watched as Officer Mohamed Noor BECAME Black when he was convicted of killing a white woman. This became a talking point for many Black activists after he was convicted.
Quantifying who is and who is not in one race or another is a complicated business. In the United States, the “one-drop rule applies” wherein anyone with any Black ancestor, no matter how far removed, is considered Black.
Many European countries who wished to separate races found this definition to be too racist and considered one or two generations to be sufficient. There is a movement to separate the categories of the all-encompassing, Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) to the more tightly defined American Descendents of Slaves (ADOS).
For some activists and historians, one must be considered to be “politically Black” to be Black.
Regardless of how you define it, descendants of people from Africa are between 14% and 100% of the population of America, yet they only get one month dedicated to their history.
February, the shortest month, is only 7.671232876% of the year, most years, and only 7.945205479% in leap years.
Even if they picked, January, March, May, July, August, October, or December, Black history month would only be 8.493150684%.
President Ronald Reagan, who prominent activists were “scared that if Ronald Reagan gets into office, we are going to see more of the Ku Klux Klan and a resurgence of the Nazi Party” used the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to “undermine racial justice” because he hated Martin Luther King.
As of January 1970, Federal Law requires Federal Holidays be observed on Mondays so MLK Day could never fall on a weekend.
Even if you added MLK Day to Black History Month, it would only represent 8.767123287% of the year which is still dramatic underrepresentation.
Some suggest the idea of Black History Month in and of itself is another form of racism. Others have long suggested it not be limited to education and government. In 2020, Forbes published an article on how companies, like Target, Coca-Cola and Google were celebrating Black History Month, highlighting a video of The Most Searched: A Celebration of Black History Makers.
Some will read this article and complain that I didn’t mention a single Black person and that I didn’t address a single problem or solve anything for Black people in America.
Who says I don’t know anything about Black History Month?
