Special Event
Black History Month is a time to honor the achievements and sacrifices of African Americans throughout our nation’s history. It also is a time to celebrate America’s rich diversity, which has become one of our country’s greatest strengths.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has selected “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington” as the 2013 theme for Black History Month.
On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation set the United States on the path of ending slavery. A wartime measure issued by President Abraham Lincoln, the proclamation freed relatively few slaves, but it fueled the fire of the enslaved to strike for their freedom.
In 1963, a century later, America once again stood at the crossroads. Nine years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had outlawed racial segregation in public schools, but the nation had not yet committed itself to equality of citizenship. On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched to the memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, in the continuing pursuit of equality of citizenship and self-determination. It was on this occasion that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech. Just as the Emancipation Proclamation had recognized the coming end of slavery, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom announced that the days of legal segregation in the United States were numbered.
Black History Month has become more than a time to remember and honor the successes of the African-American community. It also has become a time to hear new voices and different perspectives and to rededicate ourselves to the Americans ideals of freedom, equality and justice.
5 Facts about Black History Month
- Black History Month began as "Negro History Week," which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson
- Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.
- The black population of the United States in 1870 was 4.8 million; in 2007, the number of black residents of the United States, including those of more than one race, was 40.7 million.
- During the Reconstruction period 21 African Americans, including 10 former slaves, were elected to the United States Congress.
- The 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against segregated public facilities in Alabama, was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and lasted for 381 days.
