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Background history
Important terms
February 5 ,
th 2018
• Important people
• Contributions
Background history

Black History Month was started in America in 1926 by Dr Carter

Woodson, an American historian, who felt that the history taught in
America’s schools did not recognize the achievements of African
Americans. He launched a week to highlight those achievements,
and by the 1970s this had become Black History Month in the
United States.

The United States celebrates Black

History Month every February.
Background history

Dr. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History", chose the second week of
February because it commemorates the birthdays of two men who greatly
affected the African American community: Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and
Frederick Douglass (February 14). In 1976, the week-long observance was
expanded to a month in honor of the nation's bicentennial.
Terms

■ Segregation
■ Discrimination
■ Jim Crow laws
■ Emancipation Proclamation
■ Brown vs. Board of Education
Segregation
■ the action or state of
setting someone or
something apart from
others.

■ the separation or
isolation of a race, class,
or ethnic group by
enforced or voluntary
residence in a restricted
area, by barriers to social
intercourse, by separate
educational facilities, or
by other
discriminatory means
Discrimination

■ treatment or consideration of, or making

a distinction in favor of or against, a
person or thing based on the group, class,
category, or race to which that person or
thing belongs rather than on individual
merit
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern
United States. The laws started in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction Period
and continued to be enforced until 1965.

They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the Confederate
south, starting with railroad cars. Public education was already segregated, but the Jim
Crow laws extended to trains, buses, and other public facilities. They called it, “Separate
but Equal.”

This body of law institutionalized a number of economic, educational, and social

disadvantages. Segregation by law existed mainly in the Southern states, however
racism still existing in Northern states.
Emancipation Proclamation

■ The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued on January 1, 1863,

by President Lincoln freeing slaves in all portions of the United States not then
under Union control.
■ Meant as a weapon of war, the proclamation formerly made emancipation a goal of
the war, thereby preventing the South from gaining diplomatic or military support
from Europe, where slavery was increasingly condemned. The proclamation
prompted mass slave defections in the South. It also specifically allowed for the
Union military to enlist African Americans, at least 200,000 of whom served. Slavery
was banned throughout the United States by the 13th Amendment, ratified
December, 1865.
Brown vs. Board of Education
■ The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning
point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the
Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made
equal opportunity in education the law of the land.
■ The Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and
white students to be unconstitutional.

“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of

“separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities
are inherently unequal.”
- Earl Warren
Important people
Important people ROSA PARKS
On December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks
was riding the Montgomery bus
home from work. She was asked to
give up her seat to a white
passenger because the white
section of the bus was full. She
refused, based on the fact she was
in the colored section of the bus.
She was arrested for violating
segregation laws.
Her actions led to others boycotting the
bus system and inspired non-violent
protests.
Important people

Malcolm X
■ His family’s home was burned down by the
KKK. His father was murdered, his mother
was put in a mental hospital, and Malcolm
spent his childhood in foster homes.
■ His approach to Civil Rights hinged on self-
defense and violence.
■ He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
Contributions

■ Langston Hughes – poet and writer

■ Shirley Chisholm – first black congresswoman
■ Colin Luther Powell – General and then Head of the National Security Council
■ Jesse Owens – field and track athlete who won four gold medals at the Olympics
■ Oprah Winfrey – producer, director, entertainer, philanthropist, highly respected
spokesperson

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.”

—Langston Hughes
“I HAVE A
DREAM”
SPEECH