The problems of the black community have become so fierce that many blacks cannot remember a time when there was so little personal and familial security. There is a growing black middle class, and yet teenagers who are not prepared to take care of themselves are having babies and remain dependent on welfare. Blacks are holding positions that were once considered off limits, and yet black-on-black crime continues to rise. Though it is not reflected in much legislation, many people are concluding that the responsibility for many public policy problems in America (and especially in the black community) ought to be transferred from the government back to the individual. Nonetheless, race relations continues to be an issue of deep concern to the public and continues to make political campaigns ugly events. The one thing that is clear in the race debate is that the relevancy of traditional remedies for racial tension needs to be reconsidered for their utility. Black History Month is one tradition that ought to be evaluated for its relevancy.
ORIGINS
Carter Woodson started out as a coal miner, later became a respected educator, and is now considered the "father of black history." In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in Washington, D.C. The association was renamed in 1972 as the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ASALH). The association's purpose has been to train black historians, publish black history books, and pursue the historical documentation of black Americans. In 1926, ASNLH initiated Negro History Week, celebrated in the second week of February in honor of the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In Dusk to Dawn, W.E.B. Du Bois stated that Negro History Week was the greatest accomplishment of the 1920s black artistic movement.
At the nation's 1976 bicentennial, the weeklong celebration was expanded to a month to include more festivities. Over the years, February became a time for schools, black churches, and black civic groups to pay tribute to black heroes through bulletin boards, special lesson plans, historical lectures, and dramatic presentations. In the 1940s, the celebration began to flourish as the ASNLH started to sell kits containing information on black history and suggested activities. Woodson gave much of the credit for the celebration's successful expansion to schoolteachers, who eventually made this observance a norm across America.
ORIGINAL INTENT VS. CURRENT STATUS
It is easy to reason that Black History Month is a good thing because it has become a habit. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Black History Month has a problem,
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