2008 Black History Month

Each February, Black History Month honors the vital role African Americans have played throughout the nation’s history, as well as their contributions to America’s cultural and political life.

 - Black History Month Honors Stories of Determination and Triumph

Carter G. Woodson, founder of Black History Month. (National Park Service)

Washington -- Each February, Black History Month honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating obstacles -- slavery, prejudice, poverty – as well as their contributions to the nation’s cultural and political life.

2008 marks the 82nd annual celebration since Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, instituted Negro History Week in 1926.  He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The theme for 2008, “Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism,” honors Woodson’s contributions and his belief “that America should embrace the cultural differences that newcomers brought with them to America,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) web site.  Woodson and other black intellectuals of the early twentieth century believed that democracy “required tolerance of difference and could sustain those differences in harmony.”  more…

Bush honors achievements, rich heritage of African Americans

Carter G. Woodson        (National Park Service)

By Lerone Bennett, Jr.

One of the most inspiring and instructive stories in black history is the story of how Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history, saved himself for the history he saved and transformed.

The skeletal facts of his personal struggle for light and of his rise from the coal mines of West Virginia to the summit of academic achievement are eloquent in and of themselves and can be briefly stated.  more…
  

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech. (© AP Images)

A dream fulfilled?

 Washington -- It was a march and a speech that the world cannot forget. August 28, 1963, an estimated 250,000 people marched to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington where they heard Martin Luther King Jr. give a speech of unsurpassable eloquence. Known ever since from its "I Have a Dream" passages, the speech gave impassioned voice to the demands of the U.S. civil rights movement -- equal rights for all citizens, including those who were born black and brown.

The speech particularly, coming near the close of the then, largest demonstration in U.S. history, created a new spirit of hope across the land. It was one of those rare moments in history that changed a nation -- paving the way for a transformation of American law and life.   more…

• Black History Month, International Information Programs, Department of State
• African American History, The White House
• African-American Mosaic, Library of Congress
• African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institute