Almanac of Story Tellers: Black History Month

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, in podcasts, and in books. 

Today is a story of February 1st

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    It is the 32nd day of the year, leaving 333 days remaining in 2023.

   

Carter G. Woodson, one of the men
 behind Black History Month 

    Today is the start of Black History Month, an event that began in 1926 with a celebration of Black History Week.

    A Black historian and a Black minister conceived the idea to tell the stories of Black life and history, and it has caught on in countries around the world. In the 1960s, it evolved into Black History Month.

    Historian Carter G. Woodson and the Rev. Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in September 1915. Then in 1926, the group sponsored a Negro History Week in the second week of February, to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. 

    The organization became the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. In 1976, U.S. President Gerald Ford issued an official proclamation for Black History Month, and now the proclamation mentions a specific theme.

    The theme for 2023 is Black Resistance. It's fitting, given the history of February 1st. On this date:

• In 1865, President Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.

• 
  In 1960, four Black college students -- Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond -- staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., to protest segregation and its refusal to serve Black people. It led to a serious of sit-ins, and in July, the store, along with most others in the chain, began to serve Black customers. In 2002, a monument to the four men was erected on the campus of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, which the men attended.

• In 1998, Lillian Fishburne became the first African-American woman to become a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.