Community Is the Theme for Black History Month 2001

By David Pitts
Washington File Staff Writer

(Celebrating Family, Church, Politics and Culture)

Washington -- The theme for African American History Month 2001 is "Creating and Defining the African American Community: Family, Church, Politics and Culture." In towns and cities across the nation, Americans, both black and white, will be celebrating the contribution African Americans have made in this area in particular.

Since 1978, the U.S. Postal Service has honored African American History Month by issuing black heritage stamps. Such prominent African Americans as Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves travel the "underground railroad" to freedom; Mary McLeod Bethune, the noted educator and scholar; and A. Philip Randolph, the great civil rights leader and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, have been featured on the stamps.

For 2001, on its new 34-cent stamp, the Postal Service is featuring Roy Wilkins (1901-1981), who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for 22 years. Wilkins' stewardship of the NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, ranged over the critical years of the civil rights movement and beyond. He took office in 1955 and presided over the NAACP for 22 years. Earlier he edited the NAACP's "Crisis Magazine," taking over from the legendary W. E. B. DuBois.

African American History Month, sometimes called Black History Month, has been a tradition in the United States for more than seven decades and is celebrated each February. The official celebration began in 1926. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American scholar and author, began what was then called Negro History Week for two purposes -- to educate white Americans about black American culture and history, and to engender pride among African Americans who then were contending with de jure (legally mandated) segregation in the South and widespread de facto (not legally mandated) segregation in the North.

Woodson chose February for the celebration because the month marks the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery, and Frederick Douglass, the most prominent of the abolitionists. Douglass, a former slave, met with Lincoln on numerous occasions urging action to end slavery. Woodson also cited the fact that the NAACP had been founded in February -- in 1909 -- and the nation's first African American U.S. senator -- Hiram Revels, representing Mississippi -- was born in February. He assumed office in 1870, five years after the end of the Civil War.

In 1972, Negro History Week became Black History Week, and in 1976, the nation's bicentennial, Black History Week became Black History Month. In recent years, many people have preferred to refer to the occasion as African American History Month. In biographical accounts of Woodson's life, the point is frequently made that Woodson hoped that everyone, not just African Americans, would celebrate their roots each February, and in so doing, develop mutual respect.

Woodson (1875-1950) was a son of former slaves. He founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ASALH) in 1915, launched the "Journal of Negro History" in 1916, established the Associated Publishers as an independent affiliate of ASALH in 1920, and started the "Negro History Bulletin" in 1937. African American History Month has been associated with ASALH from its inception.