Why we need Black History

This month and every other one, too

If you’ve never heard the name Carter G. Woodson before, it proves the point of the title to this note. He was born in 1875, the child of two people who had once been enslaved in this country. He began his formal education after saving his money from working in the coal mines of West Virginia, and he eventually became the only person to receive a doctorate in history who was the child of formerly enslaved parents. The amount of progress that represents is simply astonishing.

In 1915, Dr. Woodson and some of his associates formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He believed that African Americans needed to learn about their own contributions to history and, following the “Red Summer” of 1919 that saw major race riots in Chicago and other cities around the country, this feeling grew even stronger.

In 1926, Dr. Woodson sent out a press release announcing that the second week of February would be known as Negro History Week. The second week of February was chosen to commemorate the birthdays of Frederick Douglass on February 14th and Abraham Lincoln on February 12th. And if there are two worthier people to celebrate, I’d like to know who they are.

The yearly observance of this eventually grew into an entire month, which also seems fitting. But, as I learned when I was a public school teacher in Chicago many years ago, it led to some suspicions on the part of my students. They felt that giving the shortest month of the year to African American remembrance was somehow a sign of disrespect. If anything, the fact that this practice has continued for almost a century suggests that it is an enduring part of the yearly calendar of historical remembrances.

But the current president has shown an alarming propensity for using “wokeness” and “DEI” as racist dogwhistles. While he did proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month—as every president since the 1970s has done—he also used that proclamation to declare that Clarence Thomas is an American hero, which I am in complete disagreement with. And when attempting to set forth examples of living excellence among African Americans, he could only offer up Tiger Woods. The saying is that “game recognizes game” and, unfortunately, the only game that matters appears to be golf.

Next year, for the one hundredth anniversary of what has become Black History month, I’ll be expecting a more expansive list of excellence to be identified because there are many candidates to choose from. Yet only one could be serving in his cabinet since the HUD secretary, as with the previous Trump term, appears to be the only cabinet role that an African American can be trusted with.

Dr. Carter Woodson proved that incredible progress can be made, in just one person’s lifetime. But the current occupant of the White House proves that continued progress is never guaranteed, either. So stay tuned for additional dispatches as Black History Month moves along.