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2023’s Theme Is “Black Resistance”
February is Black History Month. Among the many institutions that come together to pay tribute to the amazing history of Black culture and struggles and triumphs in America are the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” - Carter G. Woodson When historian Carter G. Woodson and the ASNLH announced “Negro History Week” in 1926, Woodson voiced his concern that teaching the history of any culture was essential to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of those people within broader society. He valued tradition, and he contended that the observance of Black History must become tradition. In 1976, 50 years later, the celebration was expanded to a month.
Woodson also saw the importance of adding a theme to focus the public’s attention, not to dictate or limit the study or exploration of Black history, but to draw in the public’s interest to important events, details, and dates that merit their attention. This year’s theme is “Black Resistance.”
Resistance has been a major theme in Black American culture throughout history. Black people have consistently pushed, fought, protested, resisted, and spokeout against oppression in groups and as individuals. From Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer. Seeking to nurture, protect, and strengthen Black individual lives and Black culture through edu- BLACK HISTORY » PAGE 3 cation, literature, sports, media, music, politics, and resistance - both armed and peaceful - Black Americans have pushed the United States of America to live up to her ideals, that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” - U.S. Declaration of Independence In the United States, great surges of resistance have come in nearly every decade, but especially in the 1950s and the 1970s when sit-ins, walk-outs, and boycotts against discrimination by Black people as well as their allies of all races defined major changes in U.S. culture and changes is U.S. legislation in employment, education, housing, and access to industry and institutions. The resistance continues even today with literature, film, protests, movements, music, and individual actions. Even celebrities, from Billie Holiday to Muhammed Ali, Beyonce, LeBron James, and Colin Kaepernick have spoken out or taken actions in resistance to oppression, drawing attention, sometimes controversial, to injustices and changes that need to be made.
In these times, they have also advanced the rights for impoverished, sick, and elderly Americans of all races, creeds, and colors. Black Americans have inspired the spirit of resistance and community amongst all disenfranchised Americans by their example. This culture has fueled the continued American attitude of rebellion against tyranny - an ideal on which this country was founded.
“Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Throughout the month of February, events in honor of Black History Month will be happening all over Oklahoma. For more information on Black History in Oklahoma, visit the “OPPORTUNITY AWAITS: The African-American Experience” Exhibit at the Oklahoma Territorial Museum at 406 East Oklahoma in Guthrie; or go to: okhistory.org/ blackhistory; or contact Logan County NAACP Unit 6133 and ask how to be involved by emailing evelynnephew@sbcglobal. net or cookierobinson-4HIM@yahoo.com.