Black History Month

Black History Month

Dr. Carter G. Woodson:

To promote and preserve African-American history and culture, the founder of Black History Month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson (born in 1875), Founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, now called the Association for the Study of African America Life and History (ASALH).

In 1916 he also founded the Journal of Negro History.

In 1926 Negro History week was launched, being the second week of February between the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976 Negro History week evolved into Black History Month.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson passed suddenly of a heart attack on April 3, 1950 in Washington, DC, before realizing his ambition of publishing the six-volume Encyclopedia Africana.

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."
-- Dr. Carter G. Woodson, "The Miseducation of the Negro"

Just a few African American Pioneers:

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

• The first African-American to be invited to the White House, by President Theodore Roosevelt

• The first African-American to be on a postage stamp

He was Director of the Tuskegee Institute, a college for African-Americans.   He gained most of his fame from his eloquent and impassioned push for racial equality.


Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963)

• In 1914 Mr. Morgan secured a patent for a device he called the safety hood.  In his younger days he had noticed firefighter struggling with suffocating smoke while in the line of duty.

• He patented a mechanical traffic signa1 in 1923 that he sold to General Electric.  It was widely used, yet Mr. Morgan only received $40,000 for the invention.

Vivien Theodore Thomas (1910-1985)

• As an assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and later at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Thomas developed the procedure used to treat Blue Baby Syndrome in the 1940's.

What the Bible says about Racism:

Acts 10:27-28
Good News Bible – English Version

27 Peter kept talking to Cornelius as he went into the house where he found many people gathered.   28 He said to them, “You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God has shown me that I must not consider any person ritually unclean or defiled.

Acts 10:34-35
Good News Bible – English Version

34 Peter began to speak: “I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.  35 Those who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him, no matter what race they belong to.