The Update - 2/1/21: Why do we have Black History Month? + The MVP’s of Black History
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Sunday’s update featured looking back at the life of Cicely Tyson, why clubhouse is worth $1 billion off of Black creators, and understanding the GameStop drama can be found in the link below:
The Update - January 31st, 2021
Why do we have Black History Month?
Today is 2121, the first rectangular month we’ve had in a few years and the start of Black History Month for a new decade!
One of the most often asked questions during this time every year is ‘why do we have a Black History Month?’ which is followed by ‘why is it always the shortest and coldest month?’, or ‘why don’t we have a White History Month?’—so I’ve decided to answer those questions plus a few others for you!
Why do we have a Black History Month?
Well, we have Black History Month because of one man, Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Woodson wanted a week to highlight the achievements and history of African Americans. African Americans at the beginning of the 1910s were often thought of as having no history, art, or culture, with the only history being enslaved. This led to them often being written out of history books across America and being justified as being insignificant within society.
Why is Black History Month in February?
Woodson started the week in 1926 as Negro History Week in February to coincide with two birthdays Fredrick Douglas (2/12) and former President Abraham Lincoln (2/14). This was also done to coincide with his decade-long pursuit of producing a historical document for African Americans known as The Journal of Negro History.
Why don’t we have a ‘White History Month’?
Most history in America and across colonized countries is from the colonizers’ POV. This has resulted in centuries of very harmful stereotypes (slavery wasn’t bad), alternative histories (like the civil war), blatant omissions (women’s contributions), misrepresentations of people (see Native Americans), and the continual reinforcement of selected narratives of the US written by (often powerful/elite/nationalist/imperialist) white people. This lack of true, fact-based education has led to a society that believes in a system of lies about American exceptionalism, (ahem, the 1776 project for example).
Who else has a history month?
Well, quite a few actually; March is Women’s History Month, May is Asian American-Pacific Islander Heritage Month, June is LGBTQIA month, and September 15-October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month.
I’m Black, but I’m not African American, am I included in Black History Month?
A Puerto Rican man is one of the architects of Black History
Yes! The notion of organized Black history can be attributed to the work of the Puerto Rico-born Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, who is one of the fathers of Black History. Schomburg is attributed to helping alongside several others in bringing about The Negro Society for Historical Research, a library and historical society whose purpose was to document the history of Black people across the diaspora.
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican, is the OG Black influencer
It wasn’t until the rise of Marcus Garvey, in the 1920s that we see a popularization of the concept of a shared identity, in what is now defined as Pan Africanism.
Garvey was a Jamaican-born teenager who immigrated to London in the early 1900s before eventually making his way to the US in the 1910s who initially popularized the notions of a unified African diaspora. Through the notions of Black capitalism, Black nationalism, and Pan Africanism Garvey sought to unify a global people displaced by slavery and colonization. His organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association, his back-to-Africa movement, the Black-Star oceanliner, increased the role of women within the movement, and the now global Red-Black-Green Pan African flag. These tenets plus other aspects of group cooperative economics made Garvey the most well-known global Black leader until the rise of MLK in the 1950s. This was known collectively as Garveyism and still has a large impact even today.
Garveyism is in so much more than you think
The idea of Garveyism died down after the fall of Marcus Garvey in the 1930s but would pick up again in subsequent decades by other varying strands of Black culture.
This includes The Black Power movement, The Black Panthers, Rastafarianism, as well as The Nation of Islam (NOI). This was spread further by the NOI due to the rise in the late 1950s-middle 1960s by their charismatic leader Malcolm X, whose parents were Garveyites. Garvey’s influence is also felt on contemporary Black capitalism, as well as Black nationalism and Black radicalism from the 1920s-present.
Man of your favorite heroes are from the African Diaspora
These notions of Pan Africanism again grew beginning in the late 1950s with an explosion of growth again in the 1960s and 1970s. This time was attributed to the shift in American civil rights to Black Power as well as a slew of colonial uprisings happening throughout the continent of Africa. This was aided by political leaders of varying diasporic backgrounds who often gained prominence in the US. This includes Shirley Chisholm, who was a first-generation American citizen born to Guyanese and Bajan parents, the Trinidadian born Stokely Carmichael, who was the first person on camera to say ‘Black Power’, athletes such as the Puerto Rican-born Roberto Clemente, and musicians such as Nigerian singer Fela Kuti.
I don’t think we need a Black History Month, isn’t that racist?
Well, I’m sorry that you feel that way, too bad.
One, Black History isn’t just limited to America, so that’s why calling it African American History Month is not only disingenuous,
Two, it’s also purposely divisive, meaning to divide a population into ‘us vs them’ and
Three, it purposely seeks to remove the diasporic connections to Black History.
Race is a social construct, racism is a purposely hierarchal system that prioritizes a specific set of people. It’s reflected in the destruction of people, buildings, construction of new economies, and social order beneficial to those on the top of society. Racism requires a system of indoctrination that permeates through educational, political, and religious systems of governance.
These interests have often been those of European aristocracy, the mercantile class that serves them, the institutions that serve them, and the militarized structures that support them. Black History is not about the same subjugation, misinformation, and erasure associated with European colonialism or American Imperialism. Nor is it subject to the empire myths, ‘great men’ narratives, and hero worship associated with much of contemporary colonized or formerly colonized societies. Black History is built on historic documentation, comparison, and critical analysis. Black History from the time of Woodson and Schomburg to now, was meant to not be without critique.
Why can’t we all just be Americans?
Well, that’s fine, we definitely are Americans but Black History isn’t meant to make you any less American, British, Brazilian, etc. It’s an extension of the history that was for centuries purposely not included. To be Black is not any less than or more than the home country, it’s a reaffirmation of what we came to be.
Black History is just Martin Luther King, slavery, and civil rights, why do we need to know that?
Here’s the thing while the construction of ‘Blackness’ doesn’t really begin until the start of the transatlantic slave trade, the history goes back thousands of years to pre-colonial and pre-occupied life in Africa. That precolonial life dates back thousands of years, specifically thousands of years before the occupation of Egypt by the Greeks and Romans beginning around 300 BCE. So Black history is specifically the study of African people being taken from Africa over the last 500+ years. It’s a continuation of a larger field of studies known as Afrikana/Africana Studies. What makes this different is that it focuses on the new lineages, ideas, policies, and histories of African people in new lands in what is often referred to as ‘the diaspora’.
Black History is also a part of the newer histories of the countries which have been created as a result of the last 500 years of colonization, war, and enslavement. So Black History spans the globe, but it is about the continuing story of people in new lands.
Why do some people capitalize the B in Black?
Well, we’re gonna cover that more this month, but ‘Black’ refers to a group of people, not a color, a mood, a type of comedy, or personality type. The lowercase ‘b’ actually comes from the Jim Crow era description of Black people in the US. Then commonly called negroes or colored, were purposely written in the lower case to denounce their position (smh, I know). This was also because unlike white peers, some Arab/Middle eastern groups, and even some Latino groups, there was never a transition into ‘white’.
The term Black was controversial amongst African Americans as many considered it an unflattering term relating to both colorism and negative stereotypes. During the 1960s and 1970s, Black Power became the dominant ideology amongst African Americans. As a result, the terms of negro and colored went out of fashion in replace of Black often with a capital B. But this capital wasn’t embraced by serious educational and professional institutions until in response to the racism of the Trump administration.
The term African American was gaining steam in the 1960s but grew tremendously by the 1980s as a way to pay respect to the historical struggle of Black people in America but not seen as divisive by White Americans who were turned off by the Black Power movement. This was echoed by others who kept doing the same, until the 1980s when the term African American was gaining steam.
The MVP’s of Black History
For Black History Month, I am highlighting one person each day for ‘The Black History MVP’. This person is someone, who’s had a serious impact on the culture of Black people directly and/or the broader societies in which they lived during a specific year. The person will be graded under seven categories:
What was the competition/challenges/marketplace?
Immediate Impact
Long term Impact
Collaboration/Collaborators
Influence
Were they successful at the objective(s)?
Legacy
Additionally, these MVP’s will also be given broader descriptors to help understand where they were in their prospective career/job/activist life cycles using sports descriptors such as rookie (1 year), sophomore (2 years), junior (3 years), veteran (10+ years) and retirement.
Here’s the first selection for Day 1 of the MVPs of Black History—Diane Nash, 1960
Diane Nash is an activist from Chicago, Illinois whose career started in Nashville, Tennesse in 1960 while attending Fisk University.
Year of Award: Rookie of the Year (1960), Most Valuable Person (1960)
Country of origin: USA
Country of important works: USA
Nash is noteworthy as she is the only person to be both Rookie of the Year and MVP. Nash starts out as a rookie in an unbelievably charged political climate in Nashville alongside a bevy of future civil rights legends in Nashville at the time. These future legends John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, and James Farmer, while ending up leading the entire Nashville student movement as a transfer from Howard University in DC with zero political experience prior. Nash was both a frontline leader, spokesperson, organizer, and strategist as a 22-year-old. Nash was able to not only gain a seat at the table, but she also opened up the table for everyone in Nashville to eat, metaphorically and literally.
What was the competition/challenges/marketplace?
1960 was a pivotal year as the civil rights movement would begin to reach its crescendo. 1960 is most remembered for the role of sit-ins, and the beginning of a new generation of student-led activism. At the same time, the 1960 presidential election saw Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy both struggle with what to do about civil rights. This also would be the beginning of more political assassinations of top civil rights leaders and more overt violence towards activists.
Immediate Impact
Nash not only led to the successful desegregation of lunch counters, but she also helped lead to city-wide desegregation of all facilities in just over two months from the start of the lunch counter sit-ins in February. This resulted in Nashville becoming the first southern city to do so during the Jim Crow era. Nash was then asked to join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) youth division. Nash was leery about joining and with the suggestion of Black political organizing G.O.A.T., Fannie Lou Hammer formed their own organization the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Nash also by July had met with the Chairman of the Platform for the Republican Party, Charles H. Percy to discuss civil rights.
Long term Impact
Nash’s activism led the way for a new generation of student activists and joined the committee that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nash also was one of the few women to be openly critical of the male leadership within the movement in addition to taking the reigns of leadership from men who we underperforming. Nash in many ways is the proto-version of the women-led social justice movements that would arise in the form of Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives.
Collaboration/Collaborators
Nash’s work led her to catch the attention of all-time GOAT Fannie Lou Hamer. Nash is most associated with many civil rights legends including former Congressman John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, James Forman, James Farmer, and of course MLK.
Influence
Nash’s influence is one that is spoken of in the highest regard by others within the movement as she often was the most steadfast in her principles and disposition. Even when facing potential death, Nash was known for lack of fear and discipline.
Were they successful at the objective(s)?
YES. Nash helped desegregate not just lunch counters but all public facilities in 1960. She then would be asked to come help lead the Freedom Rides the following year, the Selma Right-to-vote movement in 1963, and recruited by MLK himself to work with the SCLC.
Legacy
The civil rights movement was a culmination of many individual and often overlooked efforts. Her defiant attitude and steadfastness is evident in new activists of the 2010s such as Bree Newsome.
Happy Black History Month!