Celebrating Black History Month
At CoolSys, we’re proud of the diversity of our workforce. Having the experience and perspective of people from many different backgrounds strengthens us as an organization and sets us up for continued success.
February is Black History Month, a time when we particularly focus on the contributions of African Americans and others of African heritage to our country’s history, development and growth. So let’s learn a little more about this important celebration and what it stands for.
The Origins and Development of Black History Month
What we now call Black History Month began nearly 100 years ago as Negro History Week. It was the creation of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a pioneering African American historian who earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University.
Eleven years earlier, in 1915, Dr. Woodson was inspired by the success of an exhibition in Chicago celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved Black people in the United States. With the help of minister Jesse E. Moorland and other friends and colleagues in the Black community, he created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization that lives on today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
There were other events and publications that told the story of African Americans in the U.S., but Dr. Woodson wanted to make a bigger impact that reached more people and encouraged schools to include the study of Black history in their curriculum. In response, he announced the first Negro History Week in February 1926.
His idea caught on, and eventually, the weeklong focus expanded to the entire month of February and was renamed Black History Month. In 1976, President Gerald Ford formalized the celebration, and every U.S. president since then has proclaimed February as Black History Month. Nearly from its beginning, each Negro History Week/Black History Month has had a theme. This year’s theme is Black Health and Wellness.
Why Is Black History Month in February?
For decades before the creation of Negro History Week, the Black community across the U.S. had been celebrating the February birthdays of two men who figure strongly into the history of Black people in America: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer, speaker, writer and statesman. It made sense to Dr. Woodson to choose February for Negro History Week, and the tradition continued into Black History Month.
Resources for Black History Month
The role of African Americans in the fabric of our nation is rich, varied and immeasurable. It reaches from our local neighborhoods and communities through the fields of science, medicine, education, business and more — and all the way to the White House, the Supreme Court, state and U.S. legislatures and other areas of government. Here are a few resources to help you and your family learn more about the enormous contributions of African American people and culture in our country.
- Read President Biden’s proclamation for Black History Month 2022.
- Watch this brief video about the origins of Black History Month from Mike Hines, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
- Learn more of the story behind Black History Month and why it’s celebrated in February (from NPR).
- Get the deeper story about Dr. Carter G. Woodson and his efforts to bring Black history into the mainstream.
- Brush up on Black history facts and stories about prominent African Americans.
- Choose some activities from this list of 42 Black History Month activities to help your children learn more about Black history and the contributions of African Americans to our country.
- Talk with your CoolSys colleagues who are African American or of other African ancestry. Ask them to share their experiences and family stories.
- Learn about African American pioneers in the field of HVAC. Look for the story elsewhere in this issue of