February is African American History Month

Q: Who was responsible for initiating African American History Month? 

A: Carter G. Woodson

Born in 1875 in Canton, Virginia, Woodson worked as a sharecropper to help support his family. He began his high school education in "his late teens," but proved to be a quick study: he completed a four-year course of study in half the time. Later he would complete his education at Berea College and earn his bachelor's and master's degrees at Harvard University, and ultimately earned his doctorate from Harvard. Later on he would become a co-founder of the Associate of Negro Life and History. 

During this period of the early 20th century, the consensus among most white scholars was that the African American 'had no history': that his cultural background had been utterly stripped of him and long forgotten. However, thanks to intrepid scholars like Woodson, Arthur Schomburg, E. Franklin Frazier, and others, the rich history of African Americans became a serious study in colleges and universities by the 1960s. But it was well before then that Woodson and his colleagues began publishing. Author of many books, his volume The Mis-Education of the Negro, (1933) was perhaps the most celebrated. In it, Woodson countered the assumption of a vanished cultural past for the African American, and called for self-empowerment for African Americans. He was responsible for founding "Negro History Week," in 1926 which would evolve to become African American History Month by the latter part of the century. Now considered the Father of Black History, Woodson contributed mightily to education and academe, serving as dean of Howard University and West Virginia Collegiate Institute. 

Southwest Tennessee Community College celebrates African American History Month each year, and this year, we have a number of events going on that you can participate in. This year, the African American Read-In is taking place at the Benjamin Hooks Library on February 20th:

Carter G. Woodson Award of Merit Ceremony: Taking place Thursday, February 13th at the Verties Sales Gym, the Honors Academy will be honoring Veda Ajamu at 11:00 a.m. Please come if you can and help make this celebration a success!

Also, on the next day, February 14th-16th, SWTCC Department of Communication and Fine Arts is staging a production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun at the Union Campus Theater. Admission is free to all students, and the performance schedule is below.