Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), was a strong promoter of black education. He helped popularize the study and knowledge of Africans in the United States.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), is known as the father of African-American history. He helped popularize the study and knowledge of Africans in the United States.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Dr. Carter G. Woodson is the father of Black History Month. In 1912, he became the second African American to receive his doctorate from Harvard University. In 1926, he instituted Negro History Week during the week in February which falls on the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, the week was expanded to a month.

To celebrate Black History month, you should STUDY. Educate yourself. African-American history begins with the beginnings of humanity and civilization. Study the glory of Africans in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe millennia before Columbus. Study the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Study the defeats and triumphs of blacks as Americans.

Consider this.

Seventy-six years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, was asked to give a speech in honor of the occasion. Douglass said that he mourned because he saw the Fourth of July through the point of view of the slave. He quoted Psalm 137:1-6. This passage speaks of the horrors of being brought from your homeland only to be forced to amuse your captives who mock your memories. It also laments the cost of forgetting your homeland. Douglass said that for him to forget those who suffered in bondage, "to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make [him] a reproach before God and the world."

Perhaps this is the spirit with which Dr. Carter G. Woodson began what we now call Black History Month.