On Black History Month: Celebrating a People in America

February is Black History Month, the celebration of people of African descent in the United States. It originated in 1926 with Carter G. Woodson, an African American historian, as "Negro History Week". Since that time, the observance has grown to encompass the entire month which was chosen for its inclusion of both Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays.

Black History Month chronicles the habitation of African Americans in the country from their mass relocation during slavery to Emancipation, the summary period of segregation between persons based on their skin color, and the final break of Jim Crow Laws following the declaration of its tenets as both immoral and illegal. Black History Month also celebrates the contributions of African Americans to American culture, technology, athletics, education, medicine and science. It deals with the status of African Americans in the fabric of national history and its widespread remembrance.

The Civil Rights movement that pushed for the end of Segregation in the United States is a focal point of Black History Month. Such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X are central in the observance of the push for Civil Rights. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of mass sit-ins and other non-violent protests against the Jim Crow system. Rosa Parks became a symbol the movement against segregation by her refusal to sit in the back of a bus allotted to a person of her color. Malcom X was a minister in the Nation of Islam, a political, religious group composed of African American Muslims, who railed against the unequal treatment of people of color in the nation.

Central also are the historical landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement. The Supreme Court case Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas is massively as it marks the end of segregation in schools which lead to the unequal allotment of education. During the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. gives his seminal "I Have a Dream" speech considered a rallying call of the entire Civil Rights Movement. The Bus Boycotts of Montgomery, Alabama focus in on one of the largest demonstrations against Segregation and more centrally segregation of public transportation.

Important, as well, to Black History month are the figures precluding the period of Civil Rights before the break of Segregation. Well known are Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B DuBois, Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey. Truth was an emancipated slave and orator from New York who worked toward abolition and women's rights. Frederick Douglass was also an emancipated slave from Maryland, he worked closely with the cabinet of Abraham Lincoln for the goal of emancipation and spoke on universal suffrage.

W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington were both key figures in the periods of reconstruction following the Civil War and emancipation. They argued on contrasting views as to the place of African Americans in the society. DuBois argued that African Americans should pursue higher education and the arts but neither rely on or accept the views of White Americans. DuBois is known as the "Father of Pan-Africanism" for his contribution to the cause of educating blacks and supporting the advancement of the African American community after Reconstruction. Booker T. Washington also worked toward the education of blacks through community schools and institutions of higher learning but argued for the cooperation of whites and blacks to achieve equality. His establishment of schools and networks between members of the black community as well as his delivery of the Atlanta Exposition labeled him as a public leader of the black community during his life.

Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and argued an entirely different solution from either DuBois or Washington. He was persuaded that African Amercans, and the global African disapora, should focus on the African continent and become involved in African affairs to protect the interests of African peoples word-wide. His doctrine of Garveyism supported the idea of a universal African community and finally that of a "United States of Africa". Garvey's legacy continued to influence both the Nation of Islam and Rastifarianism, in which he is a saint.

The achievements of African American writers and artists such as James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Richmond Barthe, Beauford Delaney, James Van Der Zee and Palmer Hayden are also show cased during Black History month. James Baldwin was a novelist during the mid-twentieth century. His works include Go Tell it On the Mountain , Another Country, and Tell Me How long the train's been Gone .Langstan Hughes and Maya Angelou are two poets of the Twentieth century. Langston Hughes was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of burgeoning black artistic development. He continued his work through the Civil Rights movement and afterwards. Maya Angelou, a member of the Harlem Writers Guild, worked during the Civil Rights movement. Her memoirs, the first of which is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and her poetry anthologies make up the body of Angelou's work. Richmond Barthé, a Haitian sculptor, Beauford Delaney, a modernist painter, James Van Der Zee, a Harlem Renaissance photographer, and Palmer Hayden, a Virginia born painter depicting American life, are among the artists who lent their creative eyes to American culture and are worthy of veneration because of it.

African Americans also had an important place in technological and medical advances. Henry Blair invented an early spark plug. Andrew Beard improves the coupler between railroad cars, Henry Brown invents the fire safe and Marie Brown invents the home video security system. In the field of medicine, Bessie Blount Griffin invents a device allowing amputees to feed themselves, Phil Brooks invents the disposable syringe, Samuel Lee Kountz , Jr. pioneers organ and retinal transplant, William Warrick Cardozo pioneers research on sickle cell anemia. Charles R. Drew worked for the development of improved blood storage and the separation of blood into blood plasma and red blood cells. The plasma, which could be stored by freezing, assisted soldiers in need of transfusion during World War II.