Jane's Pocket Change: A Short Month Celebrating a Long History
Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.
Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.
One of the people I enjoy following on Twitter, scientist Ainissa Ramirez, has been posting about the African American inventors who have contributed a myriad number of everyday items to our lives: Granville T. Woods (an early form of Twitter); Elijah McCoy (oil cup); Lewis Latimer (light bulb filament); Madam C.J. Walker (make-up and hair care products); and Garret Morgan (gas mask and traffic signal), just to name a few.
One of the people I enjoy following on Twitter, scientist Ainissa Ramirez, has been posting about the African American inventors who have contributed a myriad number of everyday items to our lives: Granville T. Woods (an early form of Twitter); Elijah McCoy (oil cup); Lewis Latimer (light bulb filament); Madam C.J. Walker (make-up and hair care products); and Garret Morgan (gas mask and traffic signal), just to name a few.
And then there’s the incomparable contribution of African Americans to all genres and all media in the performing and fine arts, to the culture and literature of the world. I will end this posting with just one of those works, Langston Hughes’s poem, “Let America Be America Again," the final stanzas as powerful to day as when he penned them in 1935:
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.