Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man

by Emmanuel Acho

Black history exists because of a black scholar named Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who in 1915 founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). To promote awareness of black achievements, Dr. Woodson and his colleagues created the Negro History and Literature Week, soon renamed Negro Achievement Week. They marked the week in February because it was the birth month of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, men who played an integral role in shaping black history. Negro Achievement Week caught on like a stadium cheer: by the 1950s, it had expanded into a whole-month celebration, and in 1976 that shift was made official with the renaming of Negro Achievement Week into Black History Month. Every American president since the 1970s has endorsed that commemoration with an official proclamation. There’s no White History Month because we celebrate the accomplishments of white people Every. Single. Day. White people have always been esteemed in this country, have always been celebrated. Black people have had to push to celebrate themselves and their culture in public.