By Charles Stevens, Jr.
Pastor of Transformation Church
Sacramento, California
February has been designated as Black History Month in the United States and in Canada. Some may wonder, why have a Black History Month at all? Understanding the value of Black History Month requires understanding why it was created in the first place.
The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, but still firmly in the era of segregation. Historian Carter G. Woodson and prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent. This organization was founded to close the gap in identifying achievements made by Black Americans. ASNLH initially sponsored a national Negro History Week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month, calling upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
The path to Black History Month in Canada began with the city of Toronto, Ontario, issuing a proclamation in 1979, which was followed by the provinces of Nova Scotia in 1988 and Ontario as a whole in 1993. However, it wasn’t until 2008 that February was recognized as Black History Month by the full Parliament of Canada.
This month emphasizes the resilience and impact Black people of African descent have made on American and Canadian culture as a whole. Black heritage, history and often Black origin stories were taken and stripped from us. Imagine not knowing where you came from, not having any roots to your ancestry or lineage. Not knowing that you were named after your great uncle. Not knowing your great aunt was a famous singer or inventor. These things were lost to the Black community. For so many young Black men and women, there was no history with which they could identify.
Black History Month is a time of truth telling, a time to celebrate the fortitude and heritage of Black men and women who have experienced horrific times yet still held onto their faith in the Lord for strength, guidance, and courage. Devotion and dependence upon God are regular themes in the stories shared during Black History Month. It is not a time for division; celebrating Black history doesn’t take away from the achievements or accomplishments of any other culture. Rather, as a conference of churches filled with many cultures, Black History Month adds to the ways we celebrate our history as a whole.
Black History Month is not just to celebrate freedom from slavery or even triumphs in the Civil Rights Era, it’s also a time to celebrate leaders and inventors like Granville T. Woods, who made key contributions to the development of the telephone. Or George Carruthers, who invented the far ultraviolet camera/spectrograph in 1969, which was plated in gold and carried aboard the Apollo 16 mission, where it was placed on the moon’s surface. Or even Lonnie Johnson, who holds approximately eighty patents, including rechargeable batteries, a dart gun, a spacecraft cooling system, and a hair curler. And on a personal note, for me to celebrate my grandfather who trained with famous boxers and even held the ranking of the first Black sheriff in a small town near Dayton, Ohio.
Black History Month is a time to talk about all of history: the good, the bad, and even the ugly. It’s a time to learn from our past, grow in our present, and flourish in our future! Loving our neighbor includes rejoicing with and encouraging our neighbor, with the love of Christ. Celebrate, learn, research, share, and please don’t forget. Author Margaret MacMillan writes, “We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.” Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We pray not to repeat history; instead, may we learn from it and grow.
Happy Black History Month!