February is African American History Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.
By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid–century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.
The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. And the association—now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—continues to promote the study of Black history all year.
(Excerpt from an essay by Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History)
Executive and Legislative Documents
The Law Library of Congress has compiled guides to commemorative observations, including a comprehensive inventory of thePublic Laws, Presidential Proclamations and congressional resolutions related to African American History Month.
- African American History Month .GOV
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/
Below are just a few more resources:
- Black History Month: Everything You Need
Meet African American icons, leaders, activists, and inventors with these teaching resources.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit/black-history-month-everything-you-need
- Friends of Blackwater(“FOB”) is pleased to have added the J. R. Clifford Project to its range of programs that includes heritage education and environmental preservation programs. A key element of their work is to build awareness and support for the JR Clifford lesson plans in schools around the state. Lesson plans can be downloaded from www.jrclifford.org. J. R. Clifford (1848-1933), West Virginia’s first African American attorney, is among twelve Civil Rights Pioneers announced as honorees on a 2009 Commemorative Stamp sheet issued by the United States Postal Service.
- Digital History – Virtual Exhibitions
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/exhibits.cfm
- PBS American Experience Eyes on the Prize America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
- African American History Month .GOV
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/
Social Studies Resources 
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