Library: Study Break: African American History Month

African American History Month

African American History Month (also called Black History Month) began in February 1976. However, it first began as Negro History Week in February 1926. One of the main reasons that February was chosen as the month to promote and highlight the achievements of African Americans was because it was close to the birthdays of abolitionist Fredrick Douglas, and President Abraham Lincoln (responsible for the Emancipation Proclamation). Over the next 50 years, the week-long event, expanded and became popular due to the civil rights movement and became African American History Month.

African American History Month. (n.d.) In Britannica Academic. Retrieved from http://academic.eb.com.ufairfax.idm.oclc.org/levels/collegiate/article/475396

*This is not a comprehensive guide on African American History. Please look at the resources for more information.*

Resources

African American History Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
Explore the National Museum of African American History & Culture online collection.
PBS Black Culture Connection
PBS Black Culture Connection is your resources and guide to films, stories and voices across public television centered around Black history and culture.
History: Black History Mile Stones
Explore black history milestones and events that shaped African-American history, including the Civil War, abolition of slavery and civil rights movement.

Events

Abolitionism
The abolition movement is the movement chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery.
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a case in 1954 where the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The decision declared that separate educational facilities for white and African American students were inherently unequal. This case helped to inspire the civil rights movement.
Dred Scott v. John F. A. Sandford
The Dred Scott legal case was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise, which had declared free territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36,30, was unconstitutional. This decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war.
Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation was an edict issued by the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed slaves of the confederate states in rebellion against the Union.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a mass protest against the bus system of Montgomery, Alabama, by civil rights activists and their supporters that led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision declaring that Montgomery's segregation laws on buses were unconstitutional.

Study Break

Booker T. Washington

Fredrick Douglass

Harriet Tubman

Carter G. Woodson

George Washington Carver

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Maya Angelou

Rosa Parks

W.E.B. Du Bois

African American History Month

Resources

Events