DR. WOODSON AND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH
The
African Centered Education Movement has brought a new meaning to the annual
African American History Month celebrations that have become so popular. That
new meaning of African Centered thought, as defined by Dr. Wade Nobles, “is
nothing more than a term categorizing a quality of thought and practice which
is rooted in the cultural image and interest of African people and which
represents and reflects the life experiences, history and traditions of African
people as the center of analyses.” With this definition it is clear that we
must study the liberation of African people.
Dr.
Nobles further states that African Centered thought is, “the intellectual and
philosophical foundations upon which African people should create their own
scientific criterion for authenticating human reality.”
Through
the African Centered Education Movement, African American History Month has now
become the catalyst for the intense study of Africa and the history of African
people throughout the world 365 days a year. We must pay particular attention
in our studies to the history of the Reparations Movement.
Dr.
Carter G. Woodson, who founded in February of 1926 what at that time was called
“Negro History Week,” would indeed be inspired by the continuing discussion and
debate over the infusion of the contributions of African people in all
subjects. Dr. Woodson was deeply concerned that the contributions of African people
to this society and the world were not given their proper recognition.
Dr.
Woodson’s great book The Miseducation of the Negro, written in 1933,
described in the first chapter titled, “The Seat of the Trouble,” the essence
of what the African Centered Curriculum Movement is battling against today— 79
years later.
Dr.
Woodson explained that, “Of the hundreds of Negro high schools recently
examined (1933) by an expert in the United States Bureau of Education only
eighteen offer a course taking up the history of the Negro, and in most of the
Negro colleges and universities where the Negro is thought of, the race is
studied only as a problem or dismissed as of little consequence.”
Continuing on, Dr. Woodson gave an
example of, “an officer of a Negro university, thinking that an additional
course on the Negro should be given there, called upon a Negro Doctor of
Philosophy on the faculty to offer such work. He promptly informed the officer
that he knew nothing about the Negro. He did not go to school to waste his time
that way. He went to be educated in a system which dismissed the Negro as a
nonentity.”
Obviously,
since the writing of this great book, we have come a long way in our battle
against challenging the white supremacy foundation of the American public
school curriculum. However, we still have a long way to go!
The
Black Movement of the 1960s gave us an impetus to reexamine our history and its
impact on this country and the world. This movement brought on renewed
interest, on the part of our people, to study our history.
We
moved from the use of the term “Negro” in referring to ourselves and began to
use “Black” as the more appropriate way to describe who we are. We went from
Black History Week to Black History Month. In fact, some of us began to refer
to the month of February as Black Liberation Month.
It
was through the movement of the 1960s, particularly the Black Power Phase that
we began to re-identify with our homeland— Africa, and the interconnection of
African people throughout the world.
The
Black student movement of the 1960s sparked demands for courses in Black
Studies that lead the famous strike at San Francisco State University.
After
a long battle with the administration at the university, the students finally
won a victory for the first Black Studies Program to be established at an
American college or university. As a result, a movement for Black Studies
erupted all over America and stimulated at the elementary and secondary levels
demands from courses dealing with Black History.
As
we have come full circle today in our general acceptance of being African
People, whose ancestral homeland is Africa, we are also beginning to recognize
that African American History Month celebrations and activities are great, but
the contributions of African people must be emphasized throughout the year.
There
is no question that the setting aside of the month of February, as an extension
of Dr. Woodson’s original idea of “Negro History Week” is something that we
need to continue to support and institutionalize vigorously.
However,
we are quite clear that the real meaning of African American History Month in
this era, is to take the spirit from all the
celebrations, great speeches, great entertainment and festive events to
establish as a major agenda item in our movement, the serious study of the
contributions of African people 365 days a year.
The
basis of the current African Centered Education Movement, whose objective is to
take control of the education of African people in America as we struggle to insure
that the truth is taught in all institutions, in our communities and
particularly in our schools.
We
must take the spirit of African American History Month to another level. Our
history must be studied throughout the year!
Conrad Worrill
National Chairman
National Black United Front (NBUF)
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