Black history is American history. Period, end of story. Black History Month is our opportunity to highlight and dig deeper into a history that is overlooked in textbooks and curriculum.
At the beginning of the process of planning our department’s Black History Month celebration, I was reading an article about Black History Month on tolerance.org, “Mining the Jewel of Black History Month”, and I had a lightbulb moment. For years I have debated the effectiveness and authenticity of heritage months. As a teacher- a white, female teacher- I have been really worried about reducing an entire group of people’s history to just one month and even more terrified of being inauthentic. We’ve been doing a lot of work within our department to diversify our curriculum (see several of my other blog posts). However, in the article I read, “Filing black history away for February was clearly inauthentic and insulting, but minimizing the month was arrogant.” It’s tough to be called arrogant and realize that the article is talking about you. In doing my best not to ignore the history of an entire group of students, I’ve been ignoring part of the history of an entire group of students! Every kid deserves to be seen, and Black History Month- when carefully planned- can create a richer experience for every child.
The Creation of Black History Month
Black History Month began as Negro History Week in 1926. It was created by an African American man, Carter G. Woodson, who wrote, “The thought of the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.” Negro History Week, and later Black History Month, Woodson said, was meant to foster self-esteem and give a sense of power to African-American people, give all people an understanding of racism and oppression, and to create awareness of African-American contributions to humanity.
Planning
In reading about Black History Month and best practices in schools, it is important to convey that you that the consistent theme of all literature is that teachers absolutely cannot reduce it to “heroes and holidays.” To make it authentic, ideally the entire community should be involved in the celebration. My department has plenty of plans to get as many people involved as possible and to use February as an opportunity for teacher and student growth.
What is Black History Assembly: The first opportunity we are taking to bring the entire community into Black History Month is through our assembly period. Rather than doing trivia about the achievements of African Americans, this is a student-led program that will take our community through the history of Black History Month and the reasons it exists and should be celebrated. Students did the research and chose to present their findings as a game in which they ask students questions about Black History Month and then give the answers further explanation. By the end of the assembly, our kids will know all about Carter G. Woodson and his goals, which are our goals, too.
Oral History Archive: Students and other community members will be invited to record their stories by responding to prompt questions that will be stored in our school’s archive. Prompt questions fit within Black History themes and their reflections will ideally be in an interview format and last between 5 and 10 minutes. Those who are being recorded can choose what they’d like to discuss and all are invited to participate. Some of the questions are heavy, such as “How has racism affected you?” and others are geared toward our younger set, “How does black history help to tell the story of what it means to be an American?” or “It’s important to encourage diversity around the world because…”
Black History Lab: Just like World Language and Math have lab periods where students can drop-in for extra study, the history department is planning to have a “lab” in which students can drop-in for an African-American history class on topics selected by the proctors. I’m excited about this plan for a lot of reasons. First, we’re offering an opportunity for the kids to study history just through the lens of African Americans. Second, we’re offering our teachers the opportunity to explore a subject that they typically don’t get to do. It is invigorating for both groups!
Curricular Changes: Our department works hard- really hard- to be inclusive of many groups of people in our curriculum; however, we still made part of our celebration include curricular changes. We challenged ourselves to find something that we already teach in February and change the lens. The 8th-grade normally studies the Supreme Court in February, so we’ll be exploring court cases that have determined whiteness in the United States, including Plessy v. Ferguson, Ozawa v.
I am excited about having done so much reading about Black History Month and the way my department and our students have been so thoughtful about planning. I’m also incredibly happy that I have the opportunity to continue to learn and grow.
What are your plans for Black History Month? How are you growing today?
Citations:
The History Behind Black History Month: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/the-history-behind-black-history-month
Mining the Jewel of Black History Month: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/mining-the-jewel-of-black-history-month