February is Black History month! It is a time designated to celebrate the contributions of black people to this world. African Americans are people in the United States who have ancestors from Africa. Many African Americans have non-African ancestors as well. African Americans are also known as Black Americans. In the United States the month of February is known as African American History Month. Events and programs throughout the country honor the history and achievements of African Americans. The celebration is also known as Black History Month.
African Americans have expressed their struggles and their joys in music, art, literature, and movies.
Black People In America Thousands of Years Before Columbus!
Black History Month is celebrated every February. presidents since the 1970s, but its origins date all the way back to 1926.
The Origins of Black History Month
Black History Month was founded by Carter G. Woodson, who was a historian, author, and journalist. In 1915, in response to the lack of information on the accomplishments of Black people available to the public, historian Carter G. Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In an effort to honor this expansive and growing history, Black History Month was established by way of a weekly celebration in February known as “Negro History Week” by historian Carter G. Woodson. president Gerald Ford extended the recognition to “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States every February since. Black history is American history. But Black history has often been overlooked or erased from education.
Key Moments in African American History
Most African Americans have ancestors who were enslaved people. These people were taken from their homelands in West and central Africa and shipped to the Americas. There white people forced them to work without pay and in harsh conditions. English settlers brought the first Africans to the colony of Virginia in the early 1600s. By 1790 Black people made up nearly one-fifth of the population of the United States. Most enslaved Africans lived and worked in miserable conditions on plantations, or large farms, in the South.
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Many people called abolitionists worked to end slavery. These included Black people as well as white people. Harriet Tubman, a Black abolitionist, helped many enslaved people escape to the North through the Underground Railroad. A few African Americans made their own way to freedom. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and became an important leader in the abolitionist movement. Some enslaved people tried to rise up against their owners. Nat Turner led one such rebellion. However, most enslaved people had no way to escape the brutal life they were forced to live.
The American Civil War broke out in 1861. This was a war between the Northern and Southern states, partly over the issue of slavery. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The document declared that people who were enslaved in the Southern states were free as of the beginning of the year. However, the white people in power in the Southern states did not follow that declaration. The enslaved people were not freed until Northern troops conquered each state. The last state to fall was Texas. When Northern soldiers arrived in Texas, on June 19, 1865, they brought the news that slavery had been abolished. Today that day is celebrated as Juneteenth.
The North won the Civil War in 1865. Constitution officially ended slavery throughout the United States. citizenship. In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed Black men the right to vote. (No women were allowed to vote until 1920.)
Reconstruction and the Fight for Civil Rights
The period following the war was known as Reconstruction. African Americans were finally free, but most of them lived in extreme poverty. In the South many worked as sharecroppers. This meant that they farmed a piece of land owned by someone else. Their pay was a share of the crops they produced.
In addition, African Americans continued to suffer from discrimination (unfair treatment) and violence. Schools and other public places were often segregated. This meant that Black and white people could not mix in those places. Violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan kept most Black Americans from voting in the South. These groups also hurt or killed many Black Americans. In the late 1800s a man named Booker T. Washington became a powerful voice for African Americans. He believed in training African Americans to do certain jobs so that they could find work.
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Other African American leaders disagreed with Washington. W.E.B. Du Bois thought that the government should guarantee to Black people the same rights that white people had. These rights-such as the right to vote or the right to go to a public school-are called civil rights. Du Bois and others formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to help African Americans gain full civil rights.
The Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement
During World War I (1914-18) large numbers of African Americans began to leave the South. They moved to cities in the North and West. There they hoped to find jobs and to escape discrimination. However, many were forced to live in poor, segregated areas. They were kept separate from white people in other ways as well. For example, Black baseball players could not play in major league baseball until 1947. Instead they formed the Negro leagues, where some of the best players of all time starred. In the military they had to serve in separate units. Black fliers were not allowed to be pilots in the military until the unit called the Tuskegee Airmen was formed.
The movement from the South, called the Great Migration, continued through the 1960s. By 1970 about 6 million African Americans had left the South. By the 1950s the NAACP had begun to use the court system to fight for civil rights for African Americans. One major success came in 1954. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools.
These efforts soon turned into an organized fight for equal rights. This was called the civil rights movement. A Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., became leader of the movement. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. This law banned discrimination based on race in schools, jobs, and many other areas.
Despite these successes, some African Americans grew impatient with the slow pace of change. They began a more extreme movement called the Black Power movement. Malcolm X and a group called the Black Pantherswere among the movement’s leaders. They believed that Black people should use violence, if necessary, to get power and justice.
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During the 1960s violent riots did break out in Black neighborhoods in many cities. The African Americans who rioted were angry about violent treatment by police, a lack of jobs, and poor housing. After the 1960s the civil rights movement broke into many separate groups. Still, African American leaders continued their work to end discrimination.
African Americans Today
In addition, many African Americans gained positions of power. Supreme Court. Congress. secretary of state, and in 2008 Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected president of the United States. In 2020 there were more than 40 million Americans with African roots. population. Today African Americans in the United States continue to face racism in many ways. Black people often do not have access to adequate health care and good housing and schools. They are also much more likely to be imprisoned or to be treated harshly by police than other groups. These continuing problems have led to major protests in the early 2000s.
An African American is usually a person living in the United States who speaks English. Their ancestors came from Africa. and becomes a citizen. The term "African American" is often linked to "black people" because many African Americans have dark skin. This is due to their ancestors coming from Sub-Saharan Africa. Many Africans were brought to the United States during the slave trade. population is African American, especially in cities. Many also live in rural areas in the Southern United States. Detroit has a very high percentage of black people. Other cities with many African Americans include Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans; Memphis; Miami Gardens; and Savannah, Georgia. States with a high percentage of African Americans are Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.
The term African American describes different cultures connected to Africa. It was created to show a link to Africa for people who are American. This is similar to how we say Italian Americans or Irish Americans. The "African" part of African American shows a connection to many African cultures, not just one. The "American" part shows their nationality and culture from the United States. and live there forever. In America, there are many immigrants from different backgrounds who have some African ancestry. These include people from Cape Verde, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, and Puerto Rico.
Studies using genetic testing have shown that African Americans have different ancestries. These studies found that, on average, African Americans have mostly West African ancestry (73-82%). They also have European ancestry (16-24%) and a small amount of Native American ancestry (0.8-1.2%). There are big differences from person to person.
African American Inventors
Did you know that the traffic light, automatic elevator doors, the carbon filament in light bulbs were all created by Black inventors?
- Sarah Boone invented the first portable modern day ironing board.
- Alexander Miles was awarded a patent for an automatically opening and closing elevator door.
- Lewis Latimer worked for Thomas Edison when he invented the light bulb. Latimer invented the carbon filament that made the light bulb brighter and last longer.
- Garrett A. Morgan invented and patented the first chemical hair straightener, received a patent for the first gas mask, and invented the three-way traffic signal.
Inspiring Figures in Black History
Today African Americans in the United States continue to face racism in many ways.
- Mansa Musa is the richest person in history with a net worth of $400 Billion.
- Madam C.J. Walker was the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire.
- Dr. Mae Jemison is the first African American female to become an astronaut. She is an engineer and doctor.
- Bessie Coleman was the first woman to hold a pilot license.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Resources for Learning More
Below, we’ve rounded up some free, digital resources parents can share with their children to help them learn about Black history and culture. This interactive timeline covers African American history from 1500 to the modern day. This learning hub from PBS Kids features a list of questions parents can ask their kids to start discussions on Black history. When Black History Month is over, how can you keep the educational activities going? This article provides ideas for ways to learn about Black history year round. Does your child play sports? This page highlights 15 influential African Americans that kids should learn about. Test your knowledge with this Black History Month quiz. Watching a movie can be a great way to kick off discussions about representation. In this article, you’ll find recommendations for movies that celebrate Black stories. This comprehensive resource from the Indianapolis Public Library provides a timeline of key events in the Civil Rights Movement. Looking for more book recommendations? This article lists must-read children’s books that center around Black history or culture.
| Name | Achievement |
|---|---|
| Mansa Musa | Richest person in history |
| Madam C.J. Walker | First American woman to become a self-made millionaire |
| Dr. Mae Jemison | First African American female astronaut |
| Bessie Coleman | First woman to hold a pilot license |
