Dr Carter G Woodson - The Founder and Spirit of Black History Month
I recently did a search on Black History Month in Google and to my surprise 2,470,000 sites were listed on the subject. To my dismay, out of the top 10 sites, very little was said about the Founder of Black History Month (formerly Negro History Week) Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Even less was said about why it was formed in the first place. Dr. Carter G. Woodson created what is now known as Black History Month not just to add "The Negro" into history, but to rewrite what had been written of him. In his classic work, "The Mis-education of the Negro" Dr. Woodson details how in nearly every class and subject in school The Negro is portrayed as inferior if portrayed at all. His special talents and gifts...
Black History Month We Salute General William E. Kip Ward, U.s. Commander, United States Africa Command
During Black History Month we salute all of our military men and women serving our country. On January 30, 2010, CNN conducted a live interview with General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command, discussing his experiences as the only black four-star general currently serving in the U.S. military. "I look at it as a chance to demonstrate that you can achieve those things if you set your mind to them, if you apply yourself in productive ways, if you're prepared to accept opportunity that comes your way and then move on," Ward said during the interview. He was also asked about U.S. Africa Command's role in the Haiti disaster relief efforts. Ward explained that an Africa Partnership Station...
Black Education - Why Celebrate Black History Month?
Dr. Carter G. Woodson saw that black education was riddled with voids. Woodson is the Father of Black History Month and the second African American to receive his PhD from Harvard University. By 1915, he took upon himself the task of filling those voids of knowledge that black people lacked about themselves. In 1926, Woodson established an annual week-long celebration of black history, then known as Negro History Week. The week he chose in February fell on the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, men whom we have learned to associate with the ending of slavery. In 1976, this week of celebrating black history was expanded to the entire month of February. We celebrate black history...
Black History Month
This February, we honor Black History Month for the 84th time since Professor Carter G. Woodson began the tradition as "Negro History Week" all the way back in 1926. In 2009, though, something about our national recognition of the African-American past seems just a bit different. For the very first time, we celebrate Black History Month while a black American sits in the White House, filling the country's top job as our commander-in-chief. Just about everyone would agree that Barack Obama's election to the presidency has been an event of major historical significance. But is it possible that Obama's election will even begin to transform the entire broader meaning of African-American history? We have...
Do We Really Need A Black History Month?
It is February again, that time of the year when America celebrates Black History Month, just like the month of October in Britain. But do we really need that kind of celebration? Is it really helping understanding or, could the annual nature of it, like a cuckoo in a clock, and its exclusive label rob it of its validity and significance? As one who has spent the last 14 years promoting multiculturalism from the rooftops in the UK, through the only book on the subject in Europe, and two annual national diversity awards, I have been pretty saddened to hear government ministers and others trumpeting that 'multiculturalism isn't working' or we 'cannot celebrate diversity because it encourages...
Famous African American Women Inventors
Science is generally viewed as a men's world. Females are rarely found tinkering around the laboratory or handling mechanical devices, much less inventing one and having it patented under their name. Patents are the proof of "ownership" of an invention and only the inventor(s) can apply for a patent. In the past, women were not allowed equal rights of property ownership (patents are a form of intellectual property) and many women patented their inventions under their husband's or father's names. In the past, women were also prevented from receiving the higher education necessary for inventing. Today, however, hundreds of thousands of women apply for and receive a patent every year. About 20% of all...
His-Story, Her-Story And A Tribute - Black History Month
During Black History month everyone will remember the long line of history left to celebrate, and look toward the future of history being written with the Kings and queens, leaders, orators, champions and heralds of a great nation of people. Amongst these great people are those who may or may not get a full appreciation of the effect they have made on history and I want to dedicate this article to a cheerleader for children, poetry and motivation in the person of LaKisha Marie Tanksley. I feel blessed and deeply moved to have met LaKisha in Chicago while working to close the digital divide thru educating people to the uses of technology. The cliché of - this being a small world has never rung...