Repost from an article I did last year

I had an interesting exchange with a friend on the value of celebrating Black History Month. My position: A study of Black History is essential to making us powerful… individually and as a people, while celebrating Black History Month has become a stereotypical caricature attached to Black people, particularly Black Americans, just like eating fried chicken and watermelons.

In my research on the origins of BHM, I learnt that African American educator and historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926 started “Negro History Week”, to be held in the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. His goal was not only to bring attention to the historical contributions of Black Americans in the USA, but he had also hoped that “Negro History Week” would one day be eliminated as black history would one day be a fundamental part of American…