Black History Month: Has it run its course?

Michael E. Ross Reporter • Profile • E-mail

It was created in 1926 by a Harvard professor intent on advancing knowledge of black Americans' role in America. It was expanded 50 years later to encompass the wider role of black participation in the national life.

But in the 80th anniversary year of what has become Black History Month, a long-standing debate has reawakened, with some African Americans questioning its pertinence in the 21st century.

Some see the February observance as a necessary check against the dominance of majority culture, and a vital reminder of everything African Americans have contributed to the nation.

For others, Black History Month is an anachronism that isolates the history of African Americans to a single month, reinforcing the very segregation the observance was intended to counteract.

Actor revives argument
Comments made by Morgan Freeman in December have re-energized the debate, perhaps more impassioned than any since history professor Carter G. Woodson created the observance in 1926.

“You're going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman said in an interview on CBS' “60 Minutes.” “I don't want a black history month. ... Black history is American history.”

Black History Month isn't the only such observance on the calendar. America's tributes to African American achievement also include the seven-day observance of Kwanzaa in December, the national Martin Luther King holiday in January and Black Music Month in June.

Those interviewed by MSNBC.com insisted that Black History Month still serves an important purpose; none went so far as to call for the observance’s outright elimination, but some suggested that America needs it because of continuing challenges of blacks in American society.

“The fact that it’s a necessity is a reflection of what's still going on in society,” said Mel Watkins, author of “On the Real Side,” a history of African American comedy. “It's necessary because African American history isn’t yet fully integrated into American history. The irony of it is that we still have to have a Black History Month to remind people that we have a history.”

Still, Watkins finds value in efforts to promote the observance. “You go to a bookstore [in February] and you'll see black books in the window other than those chosen by Oprah,” he said. “They won’t be stuck in the back somewhere in the African American section. That's one positive result of Black History Month.”

Seeing both sides
“I see both sides of the argument,” said David Dent, author and New York University journalism professor. “Black history is intrinsically American, so much broader than just one month. On one level, Black History Month does separate our history from the mainstream, and that shouldn’t be. But it reflects change in the way in which we study and discuss African American life and culture.

“It has become a tradition,“ said Dent, who wrote “In Search of Black America,” a study of the black middle class “But we have to seriously consider the question, ‘Is it time to move on?’”

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: ORIGINS Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) Author and educator Carter Godwin Woodson is widely considered the creator of what's come to be known as Black History Month. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in 1908 from the University of Chicago, studied at the Sorbonne and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912. In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson realized the need for special research into the black American's life and history. Woodson was intent on making “the world see the Negro as a participant rather than as a lay figure in history.” The association developed plans for a “Negro History Week” as a way to more fully announce the contributions of African Americans. This became reality in February 1926. February was selected because of the number of African American pioneers and institutions born in the month — from W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes to the NAACP and the first Pan-African Congress. In 1976, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History expanded the observance into Black History Month. The name African American History Month is also used.

Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, disagreed.

“The notion that it’s outlived its usefulness betrays some ignorance of what its purpose was in the first place,” said Dodson, whose New York-based center is a leading source of information on black history.

“I find it interesting that no one suggests we stop studying white history on a year-round basis,” Dodson said. “If you follow the logic who say Black History Month has outlived its usefulness, they’re also saying that institutions like the Schomburg have outlived their usefulness.”

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