This 12 months marks the one centesimal 12 months for Black historical past to be formally acknowledged nationally. Began in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson as Negro Historical past Week, the month is used to highlight the true image and sometimes neglected contributions and achievements of Black Individuals regardless of the systemic challenges they confronted.
Important to that image is the system of slavery.
How might a race of individuals be enslaved for 240 years, then endure many years of humiliation below Jim Crow legal guidelines and many years extra of government-sanctioned discrimination and nonetheless rise to supply scientists corresponding to Dr. Patricia Bath, who invented a laser remedy for cataract surgical procedure, explorers corresponding to Washington’s George Bush and professors corresponding to Woodson, who was the son of previously enslaved individuals but earned a doctorate from Harvard? These accomplishments in opposition to unimaginable odds ought to intrigue Individuals of all colours. The individuals, locations and occasions from the Civil Battle to the Civil Rights Motion ought to spark curiosity from all ages.
However for too many many years faculties and communities ignored Black historical past, and produced generations with an absence of true information of how America was created and who all contributed.
At present, 100 years for the reason that inception of Negro Historical past Week, many nonetheless wish to ignore and even erase historical past that doesn’t middle whiteness.
In 2017, President Donald Trump visited the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition throughout Black Historical past Month. He known as the tour a “significant reminder of why we now have to combat bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly varieties.” Quick ahead to 2025 and his administration has eliminated references to Black historical past and slavery at museums, and nationwide parks and buildings. One of many administration’s most egregious acts was the current elimination of a display at the Philadelphia home of George and Martha Washington that instructed the story of 9 enslaved individuals who labored there. This motion has resulted in litigation.
Trump administration makes an attempt to erase Black historical past are a significant reminder of why we now have to combat bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly varieties.
Domestically there are alternatives this month to be taught and share with others America’s Black historical past. The King County Library System has a list of recommended books for all ages. The Washington State Commission on African American Affairs has occasions deliberate for the month. And Blackpast.org is a year-round worldwide useful resource for Black historical past based by the late College of Washington professor Quintard Taylor.
In the meantime, senior U.S. District Decide Cynthia Rufe quickly will determine the destiny of the show in Philadelphia. Earlier than she visited the location she stated: “You’ll be able to’t erase historical past when you’ve realized it. It doesn’t work that means.”
