This Black History Month, let’s focus on the present
This Black History Month, let’s focus on the present
By Colbert I. King Columnist Jan. 31, 2020 at 3:29 p.m. CST
When I was coming along, the second week in February was called “Negro History Week” — a time set aside to recognize and celebrate past achievements by blacks in America. The week coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, but that was no mere coincidence. Black American historian Carter G. Woodson, founder of Negro History Week, planned it that way.
That observance was a critical part of my young life. Growing up in segregated Washington and reading from used textbooks handed down from all-white schools, we needed to know a lot more about the accomplishments of black people. Self-affirming Negro History Week accounts were as important to us as blackboards, erasers and lined writing paper.
REAM MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/th...
By Colbert I. King Columnist Jan. 31, 2020 at 3:29 p.m. CST
When I was coming along, the second week in February was called “Negro History Week” — a time set aside to recognize and celebrate past achievements by blacks in America. The week coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, but that was no mere coincidence. Black American historian Carter G. Woodson, founder of Negro History Week, planned it that way.
That observance was a critical part of my young life. Growing up in segregated Washington and reading from used textbooks handed down from all-white schools, we needed to know a lot more about the accomplishments of black people. Self-affirming Negro History Week accounts were as important to us as blackboards, erasers and lined writing paper.
REAM MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/th...
