Black History Month – Filling in the Gaps

Search terms: “black history month”+”literature”, “negro history week”, “black history month”+”origin”, “black history month”+”fashion”

It is no secret that in American education lacks breadth and depth in Black history education. Vernon Jarrett, newspaper columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Tribune and Defender says,”Now in our textbooks in the South, only two black names were mentioned, Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. Because they were considered accommodationists. You--you could read a history textbook and never hear a word about anything blacks ever did in any war, but we were the heroes of all the great wars--we learned later, but it wasn't mentioned.”

Negro History Week in Local Schools Article

Carter G. Woodson

So, in 1926, The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History started Negro History Week. Jarrett describes its inception, “Well let's go back to history. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History was created right here in Chicago in September, I think September 11, [1915] at the old Wabash YMCA, Carter G. Woodson , Ph.D history. Dr. George Cleveland Hall and I think another gentleman a graduate of Yale named Alexander Williams [sic, Alexander Jackson] who might have been the secretary of the YMCA at the time. And there was a Mr. E-- I forgot, James [E.] Stamps, an accountant. I think he had been to Harvard or Yale or one of those Eastern schools. They started the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in order to fill in some of the gaps that left out, that we black people were suffering from. And in 1926 the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History--in 1926 they launched Negro History Week, an annual event in February. Because that was the birth month, month of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, and also the birth month of Frederick Douglass. You didn't know the date he was born because they didn't keep those kinds of records about slaves. But he thought that he had been born in 1817 in February. So you had that month set aside. One week out of the month black people began to review their past in Africa and in all, various arenas that they had been left out, of as soldiers in all the great wars, as poets, as writers and particularly as scientists.”

Negro History Week would later become Black History Month. Social activist and professor Robert T. Starks explains “Because it starts around '66 [1966], '67 [1965], when we began to hear the rumblings of it. And remember these were--kids were actually leaving high schools and forcing schools, high schools to, to implement black studies and lengthen the time of the so-called Black History Week. And you know eventually by 1969 Andy (activist Matt Andy) and his cohorts introduced the idea of Black History Month at the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History [later Association for the Study of African American Life and History], and that was adopted by the Association”. And in 1976 President Gerald Ford made it a national holiday.

But just because the government recognized it did not mean that it was always a rich and comprehensive experience. Jack Arnett Kirkland, racial, ethnic, and cultural consultant said,”Even today for instance if you are with, with the given of Black History Month which we obviously know is is not only a short month, but it, it, it glorifies you know like Booker T. [Booker T. Washington] or W.B. Du Bois [W.E.B Du Bois]. Now occasionally a Malcolm [Malcolm X] or, or some other characters are put in there but the, the real truth of what happened in the whole black and African struggle and the whole African heritage, that story still isn't told. So not only is it not told but after you've learned whatever it is that you're to learn in that one month, it's not tested. And, and kids know that if there's no test, it's not important.”

Because of this, many Black people decided to take the duty of passing down information and education during Black History Month into their own hands.

Musician, composer, and actor Isaac Hayes is probably most known for the theme from the 1971 Black film classic Shaft. In 1992, Hayes went on a transformational trip to Africa with fellow musician and friend Dionne Warwick. They saw the grave sites of Kwame Nkrumah and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois as well as the cape Coast Castle where enslaved people were held before being shipped to the Middle Passage. Hayes describes his post trip educational efforts, “When I came back to America, I went on speaking engagements at black expos, encouraging African Americans to go to Africa, interact socially, culturally, and, or economically. Said, you need to know where you came from because we didn't have black history when I was in school. We had Negro History Week, and now we have Black History Month. The shortest month of the year, but still. We need to have those studies in schools along with English lit and world history.”

Isaac Hayes

The Honorable Lillian Burke, municipal court judge and the first Black woman to sit on the Ohio state bench, talks about her time in high school. She attended Duquesne High School in Pennsylvania and took it upon herself to educate her classmates during Black History Month, “I tried to shine a good light on black history, but I don't think they listened to it too much. Because I had read it and I was able to say it, I felt pretty good about it…And we didn't have black history in the schools, you see, and so we had to do it ourselves. So, I took Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the kids didn't want me to use the dialect that he--they didn't want me to use the dialect.” Despite her peers’ disinterest, Burke shared her favorite Paul Lawrence Dunbar dialect poems.

The Honorable Lillian Burke

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Fashion designer and president of the Fashion and Arts Exchange Steven A. Cutting describes a Black History Month effort that meant a lot to him. Before his work at Philippe Monet, Kenneth Cole, and Reebok among others, he was a student at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Clara Branch started SOUL Club at FIT, a club meant to familiarize the school with Black heritage and culture. She was also a mentor to Cutting,” Ms. Branch is--I have a lot of respect for her. She has helped so many people in FIT who were of color, you to know to really understand what fabric is about. She use to run the fabric department at FIT and she would give us a lot of fabric, she would--she knew everybody in the industry and you know she would, as coordinator for the Soul Club she'd put on this big fashion show every year usually during Black History Month in February we would have this big show, and it was just an outlet for us as students or people in the industry who--alumni from the school who would come back and do the show just for us to really understand what it takes to be involved in fashion and to put together a show and know how to do a collection and just really know how to--it all works.”

Steven A. Cutting

Steven A. Cutting’s Sketches

Founder and chief executive of N’DIGO magazine, Hermene Hartman, describes how she took Black History Month into her own hands,” the original thought of 'N'DIGO' kind of was stimulated by looking at what the major papers did during Black History Month. And I found it to be insulting. It was either stupid--so stupid until it was like what is this? Or, insulting. Not with intent--more with ignorance--a cultural ignorance, a social ignorance. And I went to the '[Chicago] Sun-Times' [newspaper] to say--and took one of their issues on black history to say, "This is terrible. It has no sense, it has no content, it has no style. It's just something that you threw together. Would you allow me to put an issue together for you on black history that has a sense to it, that has a content to it, and that people will be proud of and will use?" And they said, "Okay, fine." And I said, "Don't pay me. Just let me do this." And I did. I did a special Black History Month issue for the 'Sun-Times'. They did the advertising, and I put the content together. Well it was really kind of a test of would something like this work. Is it an acceptable piece, how do you do a print medium? And it was a big success. It was in all of the papers and teachers began to call the 'Sun-Times' for it. And the 'Sun-Times' was selling it for two dollars by itself. It was all of eight pages--I think eight to twelve pages. Well, you know, my lights went off. It's like, "Wow! This was all right. It worked." After working on the Black History Month issue for the Chicago Sun-Times she realized that there was a crucial lane missing for Black Chicagoans, a place for them to express and interpret themselves. Thus N’DIGO, the social commentary magazine that shines a spotlight on the Black middle class of Chicago, was born. In its own words N’DIGO delivers, “stories that have been mistold, gone untold, and need to be retold”

Dr. Hermene Hartman

Shirley Kinsey, art collector, author, and educator used her artistic bent to create a Black History Month exhibit, “The California black legislators [California Legislative Black Caucus] had asked us to do a small exhibit for Black History Month in Sacramento [California] and it's the museum where at that time the first lady Schwarzenegger [Maria Shriver] that was her, her baby. And so we did--they wanted it for a month and then they asked can they keep it longer because the attendance was really going and everybody really, really loved it and stuff, so we did that. And then we did an event down at USC [University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California] for their Black Alumni Association, their fundraising event. They normally would have a big dinner and they wanted to do something different and have it in the auditorium so they did something similar to What You Learned in High School History [sic. What You Didn't Learn in High School History] but they actually--and they had a small exhibit, some, some--well how I'm gonna say, some prints around campus, not the originals, but had some prints and stuff around campus. And then they had the president of the university introduce us and that was very good and had a big reception. They had about twelve hundred people in the auditorium that night. And they gave the book ['The Kinsey African American Art and History Collection'] out as, as--your, your ticket, bought you the book too; so the book went home with a lot of people that day (laughter) also.” Not only did she have Black art on display but she gave copies of her and her husband’s book to guests to further Black art knowledge.

Bernard Kinsey, Shirley Kinsey, and son Khalil Kinsey

In all these examples each person is carrying out Carter G. Woodson and the Associations’ vision to fill in the gaps in Black history. Whether it be through art, fashion, poetry, journalism, or education.

Outreach update

Fellow ambassador Felicia Hart and I officially announced our Black History Month Digital Archive Contest! So far, we have two registrants and are anticipating more. We found our third judge Louisiana Poet Laureate Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy and we are excited for her to join us. This week has been full of preparation for presentations at the Higher Education Advisory Board Meeting in Arlington, VA. I am looking forward to meeting The HistoryMakers’ staff, fellow ambassadors, and guests.

References

Vernon Jarrett (The HistoryMakers A2000.028), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, February 10, 2000, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 1, Vernon Jarrett talks about the start of Negro History Week and its impact in his school

Chambers, Veronica. “How Negro History Week Became Black History Month and Why It Matters Now.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/history-of-black-history-month.html.

Congress, The Library of, et al. “Black History Month.” Black History Month, https://blackhistorymonth.gov/about/.

Robert T. Starks (The HistoryMakers A2009.147), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 15, 2009, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 8, Robert T. Starks recounts his student activism in Chicago, Illinois with HistoryMakers Fannie Rushing, Timuel Black, Kwame John R. Porter and others

Jack Arnett Kirkland (The HistoryMakers A2007.288), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 6, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 6, story 8, Jack Arnett Kirkland talks about Black History Month

Isaac Hayes (The HistoryMakers A2003.142), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 25, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 2, Isaac Hayes stresses culturally inclusive education

The Editors, Of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Isaac Hayes.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Hayes.

The Honorable Lillian Burke (The HistoryMakers A2004.082), interviewed by Regennia Williams, June 17, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 6, The Honorable Lillian Burke describes her work on Paul Laurence Dunbar

Steven A. Cutting (The HistoryMakers A2007.242), interviewed by Adrienne Jones, August 30, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 5, Steven A. Cutting remembers the mentorship of Clara Branch

“Clara Branch.” Black Dress, https://www.blackdressexhibit.com/new-page-2.

Hermene Hartman (The HistoryMakers A2001.035), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 4, 2001, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 7, Hermene Hartman describes the origins of 'N'DIGO'

Hartman, Dr. Hermene. N'DIGO, 2 Feb. 2023, https://ndigo.com/.

Shirley Kinsey (The HistoryMakers A2013.340), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 18, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 9, Shirley Kinsey remembers creating an exhibit for Black History Month