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― Carter G. Woodson, "The Mis-Education of the Negro"
In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, noted historian of the Black experience in the United States, developed Negro History Week (now Black History Month) as a twofold strategy toward racial equality. First, it was designed to educate Black people about their history, their contributions and their humanity in a country that from its founding considered them property and worth only three-quarters of a person. To counteract the deliberate strategy of keeping Black people in ignorance of their history, Woodson proposed creating intentional time and space to honor Black Americans and their achievements. Woodson believed Black people needed to know their full history both for reasons of dignity and as a tool to participate thoughtfully and strategically in U.S. society and politics. Woodson wrote his classic masterpiece, "The Mis-Education of the Negro," to make the case that Black people would require a totally new education to attain full freedom and dignity. Even today, Black people continue to re-educate themselves and their children using the tools provided by Woodson and other Black intellectuals that are not available in most American schools. Second, Woodson also promoted Black history to educate White Americans about the contributions of Black Americans as proof they were equally human: intellectually, culturally, physically and socially. In a country hellbent on denying the equality of Black people, Negro History Week served as a counterweight. Woodson hoped that eventually Negro History Week (today’s Black History Month) would no longer be needed, because all Americans would honor the contributions of Black Americans to their country’s history without a second thought.What White people have to do is try to find out in their hearts why it was necessary to have a n---r in the first place.Part of doing that is taking a deeper look at what Whiteness has meant historically and what it currently means in our society. Rather than spend the month of February “proving the value” of Black people by highlighting individual Black Americans and their contributions to our country, this Black History Month Racial CrossFit lesson challenges us to discover why there is still a need to “prove” Black worth, by studying how White racism has historically and systematically devalued the worth of human beings not considered to be “White.”
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