Celebrating Black History Month

With adoption there is often the combination of your child's culture with the heritage or race of your own. I assume not all families choose to celebrate their child's culture or race but we do. In my opinion I do think it is important to educate yourselves and your children about their heritage. Thus this month our family will recognize and celebrate Black History Month.

I wanted to share a few things I found to share with my family.

The story of Black History Month begins with historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was passionate about black history. His passion, however, evolved in the most unlikely place. While working at a coal mine when he was twenty, the daily conversation of the black Civil War veterans often focused on interesting historical facts not recorded in history books. Woodson realized that despite the constantly evolving history of the African American experience, documentation was sparse.


In 1926, Woodson finally came across an idea that would forever associate his name with Black History Month. Negro History Week, as it was called by the black fraternity Omega Psi Phi, was a week in February dedicated to celebrating the achievements of blacks. Their celebration was somewhat stagnant until Woodson offered to put the Association’s name behind the idea in February 1926. Woodson chose the second week in February because it marked the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Through Woodson’s promotion of the celebration in the Journal of Negro History and the creation and distribution of kits for children, Negro History Week gained in popularity. In 1976, it evolved into Black History Month.

•1863: President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
•1865, June 19:Slavery in the United States finally ends when 250,000 slaves in Texas are informed that the Civil War had ended two months earlier.
•1865, December 6: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified,
prohibiting slavery
•1870, February 3: The 15th Amendment was passed, granting blacks the right to vote.
•1964, July 2: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
•1968, April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, TN.
•1968, April 11: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

I hope you too may choose to learn more about your childrens culture and share it with them, your family, and others.