Black History Month: Day Six--So Why February?

*Note: For The Journey: Day Eighteen see my earlier post today.

Black History Month: The History and the Controversy

Day Six: So Why February?

Having summarized the earliest history of what has become Black History Month, we now explore the more recent history.

People ask, “Why February?”

Some African Americans friends even say, “Yeah, first they give us just one month. And then they give us the shortest month of the year!”

Well, it wasn’t “they.” It was our African American friend Dr. Carter Woodson who selected a week in February for the initial Negro History Week. Why?

The week in February included the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln, of course, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Douglass had been one of the great African American leaders of the previous century.

And how did the one week morph into one month? And what of the modern history? And then . . . what of the modern controversy.

Stay tuned . . .