![\"woodson_pic_1875-1950\"](\"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/woodson_pic_1875-1950.jpg\" "\\"woodson_pic_1875-1950\\"")
<\/a>The origins of Black History Month began when Carter\u00a0G. Woodson <\/a>founded the Association for the\u00a0Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and one year later, the Journal of Negro History<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\nWoodson was a Harvard-trained historian.\u00a0 <\/span>He believed that publishing scientific\u00a0history about the black race would produce\u00a0facts that would prove to the world that Africa and its people had played a crucial role in the\u00a0development of civilization. \u00a0That Scientific history, he believed, would counter\u00a0racial falsehoods.\u00a0 <\/span>That reason would\u00a0prevail over prejudice truth would trickle down to the\u00a0public, and the race problem would gradually disappear.<\/p>\n \u00a0In the 1920s Woodson began urging black civic organizations to\u00a0promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering.\u00a0\u00a0In 1924 he created the Negro History and Literature Week with help of his fraternity brothers at Omega Psi Phi to take up the work.\u00a0 <\/span>This later renamed Negro Achievement Week.<\/p>\n Woodson selected the week of February that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham\u00a0Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation that moved the nation away from slavery. Frederick Douglass had been a great leader of African Americans. \u00a0 In selecting February, Woodson’s sought to promote his belief that African Americans\u00a0history was<\/em>\u00a0American history.<\/p>\n By 1925 the Association broadened its focus to include whites and black and anyone interested in history, not just historians and other scholars.<\/p>\n In the years that followed Black history clubs sprang up. Demand for materials from teachers soared. In response the Association published photographs and portraits of important black\u00a0people. \u00a0It published plays to dramatize black history. \u00a0It also formed branches to bring people into the organization.<\/p>\n Woodson died in 1950.\u00a0 <\/span>By that time Negro History Week had become a central part of African\u00a0American life.\u00a0 <\/span>In cities across the country, mayors issued\u00a0proclamations noting Negro History Week.<\/p>\n In the 1960s African Americans entered into\u00a0mainstream colleges and in the tradition of the Freedom Schools established during\u00a0the civil rights era which included the study of Black history, they demanded that Black Studies and Black history became a central\u00a0 feature. \u00a0Increasingly there were cries for more than a week to study Black history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1976, fifty yearsafter the first celebration, the Association held the first Black History Month. Since then all American presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, haveissued Black History Month proclamations.<\/p>\n \u00a0Check the sites below for more educational information and upcoming events.<\/p>\n CityGuide<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 CNN<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HarlemWorld<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n