Celebrating Carter G. Woodson and 100 Years of Black History Month

One hundred years ago, a Black scholar made a radical proposal in a country determined to erase Black truth.

In 1926, historian, author, and educator Dr. Carter G. Woodson introduced what was then called “Negro History Week” (originally referred to as Black Negro History Week). At the time, Black contributions to this nation were either ignored, distorted, or deliberately excluded from American education. Woodson understood something that remains true today: a people cut off from their history are more easily controlled, miseducated, and dismissed.

Dr. Woodson’s idea was not about separation—it was about correction.

Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Carter G. Woodson came of age in a country that offered Black people little access to formal education and even less respect for intellectual achievement. Much of his early learning was self-taught while working in coal mines and other labor-intensive jobs. Against all odds, he went on to earn a doctorate from Harvard University, becoming only the second Black American to do so.

But Woodson didn’t pursue education for personal prestige. He pursued it for liberation.

He recognized that American history, as it was being taught, was incomplete and dishonest. Black people were depicted as passive, inferior, or nonexistent—despite having built, defended, innovated, and shaped the nation from its inception. Woodson believed this omission wasn’t accidental. It was intentional.

In response, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) and later launched The Journal of Negro History, creating space for Black scholars to document their own stories. Negro History Week was designed as both a teaching tool and a challenge—an invitation for schools, churches, and communities to engage with Black history as fact, not footnote.

Woodson chose February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, anchoring the observance in resistance, freedom, and contested narratives of American democracy.

Over time, Negro History Week expanded. By 1976, it officially became Black History Month, recognized nationally. But even then, Dr. Woodson’s intention was never that Black history be confined to a single week or month.

He warned against that.

Woodson believed Black history should be integrated into the full American story, taught year-round, at every level of education. His goal was not celebration alone, but truth. He understood that omitted history and false history damage everyone—not just Black people.

That warning still echoes today.

Black History Month exists because American history, as traditionally taught, failed to tell the truth. And while a month of recognition matters, it is not enough. Black history is American history. It should be taught, acknowledged, and remembered every day—not treated as optional, controversial, or expendable.

Omitted history must be restored.

False narratives must be corrected.

And the full scope of Black heroism, innovation, resilience, and ingenuity must be told—not as an add-on, but as foundational truth.

Honoring Black History Month means more than highlighting struggle. It means celebrating architects, inventors, scholars, artists, healers, organizers, builders, and visionaries whose contributions shaped this nation long before recognition followed.

It also means honoring Dr. Carter G. Woodson himself—a man who understood that memory is power, and that education can be an act of resistance.

As someone connected to his legacy through family lineage, this celebration is not abstract—it is personal. But beyond bloodlines, Woodson’s work belongs to all of us who believe that truth matters, that history should heal rather than harm, and that knowledge is a tool of freedom.

One hundred years later, his mission remains unfinished.

So this month, we celebrate—but we also recommit. To telling the truth. To teaching it fully. And to ensuring that Black history is never again treated as optional in the story of America.

Because remembering Dr. Carter G. Woodson means continuing the work he began.

Every month.

Every classroom.

Every generation.

Advertisement

Keeping Hope Alive

Jesse Jackson and Post Civil Rights Black Leadership in America.

By Dr. Stephen G. Hall

Jesse Jackson is one of the major civil rights leaders of the modern period. His
association with Martin Luther King and the leadership of the Southern Christian
Leadership Council (SCLC) led him to subsequent work in the urban north. Jackson became representative of an economic and class-based approach to race
empowerment in the post-Civil Rights era (1968-present). He expanded this profile
through his involvement in international affairs and his two high profile presidential
campaigns in 1984 and 1988. He also emerged as a critical voice for Black concerns in
the 1990’s and throughout the first quarter of the 21st century. He is the most
recognizable civil rights leader of his generation and his impact on Black struggle and
advancement in the social, political and economic realms is immeasurable.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina to a single mother. Jackson excelled in school and
obtained a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. He transferred to North
Carolina AT&T where he majored in Political Science. He pursued a Masters of Divinity (MDiv) at the University of Illinois but left school one class short of graduation. He eventually obtained an MDiv from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2000.
Trained in nonviolence, Jackson was deeply concerned influenced by the Civil Rights
Movement. Unlike other young activists, Jackson was not influenced by the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Rather he worked with the more
conservative and ministerially based Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).

Jackson participated in the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He quickly rose
in the SCLC’s leadership ranks. He participated in the Chicago campaign in 1966. In
1967, Martin Luther King selected Jackson to run SCLC’s economic arm, Operation
Breadbasket in Chicago. Jackson served as national director.

Operation Breadbasket expanded dramatically under Jackson’s leadership. The
organization used economic boycotts initiated by black consumers to pressure white
businesses to hire Black employees and purchase goods and services from Black
owned businesses. Jackson enlisted the help of powerful supporters such as TRM
Howard, a Mississippi medical doctor, business owner, hospital owner and proponent of
entrepreneurship and economic power among Blacks. Howard introduced Jackson to
businesspeople in Chicago. The organization held massive rallies on Saturdays which
featured economic and political leaders from the white and Black community.

After Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968, a power struggle emerged
between Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, King’s chief lieutenant in SCLC. Jackson’s
aggressive and flamboyant style clashed with Abernathy’s more reserved and camera-
shy persona. Jackson also viewed the struggle for civil rights as an economic and class
struggle while Abernathy conceptualized it as a moral struggle. Jackson established
alliances with whites and highlighted the need to address economic parity for African
Americans. In 1971, Abernathy ordered Jackson to relocate Operation Breadbasket to
Atlanta. Jackson refused and his entire staff resigned from SCLC after Abernathy
sought to diminish his stature by questioning expenses from the Black Expo, an
economic and cultural festival sponsored by Operation Breadbasket in Chicago in 1971,
and suspended Jackson as Operation Breadbasket’s director.

After breaking with SCLC, Jackson formed a new organization known as People United
to Save Humanity ( PUSH). With TRM Howard as Director of the Finance, Jackson took aggressive steps to expand the African American economic footprint. PUSH staged
boycotts of major American corporations including Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch and
CBS, among others. In 1984, Jackson resigned from PUSH to run for the Democratic
presidential nomination.

The most significant achievements of Jackson’s career were his presidential campaigns
in 1984 and 1988. Rather than view these runs through the lenses of presidential
campaigns by focusing on primaries won or delegates obtained, these presidential runs
were designed to reimagine the Democratic Party in the face of severe retrenchment of
civil and human rights during the Reagan administration ( 1980-1984) and ( 1984-1988).

Reagan’s attempts to undermine the gains of the Civil Rights Movement through his anticivil rights, anti-affirmative action and retrenchment of social services programs had a
devastating impact on African Americans, minorities, LGBT and POC.

Jackson first run for the presidency occurred against the backdrop of several important
events that occurred in 1983. Harold Washington was elected as the first Black mayor of
Chicago. The campaign to obtain a federal holiday for Martin Luther King began to gain
traction after the release of Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” followed by a massive
rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Ronald Reagan signed the legislation for the King federal
holiday in the same year. In 1984, for the first time in history, the Democratic Party
nominated Geraldine Ferraro as the first female vice-presidential candidate of any major
political party in the United States. Jackson used his campaign not only to test whether
a Black candidate could run a national campaign for president, but to also to invigorate
the Black electorate. In accomplishing this goal, he enlisted the help of Ronald Walters,
Chair of the Political Science Department at Howard University, who was widely
regarded as one of the most prominent political scientists of the twentieth century.
Walters strategy for running a Black candidate nationally was utilized by Barack
Obama in his successful run for the presidency in 2008.

Measured using a yardstick other than traditional political metrics, Jackson’s campaign
was extraordinary. In the South, in states like Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Jackson
received outsized Black support. In fact, Jackson ‘s campaign increased Black voter
turnout. It is also clear that Jackson wanted to increase the influence of Black people in
the Democratic Party. He also wanted to introduce items into the Democratic platform to reflect an expansive Democratic agenda, such as banning runoff primaries, decreasing
defense spending and banning nuclear weapons. He also embraced constituencies
heretofore ignored in democratic politics. One example of a marginalized group
Jackson embraced was Arab Americans. James Zogby, a prominent Arab academic
and activist on Arab discrimination was asked to join Jackson’s presidential committee.

This was the advent of Arab American involvement as a key constituency in the
Democratic Party. Arab Americans were able to elect four delegates to the Democratic
National Convention. In Dearborn, Michigan there were fewer than 1,000 Arab
Americans registered to vote in 1984. By 1988, the Arab delegation consisted of 55
members. Today, there are more than 14,000 Arab Americans registered in Dearborn
alone. Arab officeholders hold significant political positions in nine states.

Jackson’s keynote speech at the 1984 convention was significant for his conciliatory
tone, but more importantly for its discussion of the Rainbow Coalition. The speech cited the merits of diverse groups, such as Arab Americans, Native Americans, Asian
Americans, youth, disabled, veterans, small farmers, lesbians and gays to join with
African Americans and Jewish Americans to promote political empowerment and public
policy issues.

In 1988, Jackson launched a second bid for the presidency. He perfected his campaign
chant “Run Jesse Run” and “Win Jesse Win.” Jackson’s campaign’s platform included
universal health care, higher taxes for the wealthy, reducation of federal deficits, and an
increase in social services spending. He also promoted improving American
infrastructure. Jackson’s campaign received more than 6.9 million votes and won 11
contests and primaries in Alabama, The District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Virginia.

Jackson’s campaign also served as a catalyst for increased Black political leadership in
the Democratic party. It laid the groundwork for the careers of Black political operatives
in the late twentieth and first quarter of the twenty-first century. Some of these
operatives include individuals, such as Donna Brazile, who served as Jackson’s field
director in 1984. She later managed Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign, and served
as Chair of the DNC. Ron Brown, headed Jackson’s campaign in 1988. Brown later
became the Chair of the DNC and served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton
administration. Maxine Waters served as campaign chair for Jackson’s 1988
presidential campaign. She has enjoyed a long career as a representative in the U.S.
House from California. Willie Brown served as the campaign chair for Jackson’s 1988
campaign. He served as Speaker of the California House of Representatives and is a
close friend of Kamala Harris. Al Sharpton, worked closely with Jackson in the SCLC
and Operation Breadbasket. At age 13 Sharpton served as the youth director the New
York branch of Operation Breadbasket. Sharpton founded the National Action Network
in 1991. Carolyn Mosley Braun, an Illinois politician successful 1992 Senate campaign
was supported by Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition/PUSH coalition.

In 1992, Jackson hosted a CNN talk show, “Both Sides with Jesse Jackson.”
Throughout the 1990s, Jackson continued to play a significant role in Democratic
politics. He helped to promote Bill Clinton’s campaigns for the presidency in 1992 and
1996. He opposed Clinton’s impeachment because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He
also became briefly involved in the 2000 election debacle. Throughout the early twenty-
first century, he was a vocal critic of the Bush administration and the sustained war in
Iraq and Afghanistan following 911.

Jackson’s views on foreign affairs were also an important component of his portfolio. He
was widely known as a diplomatic ambassador and as someone who could secure the
release of Americans in difficult circumstances and from regimes not friendly to the
United States. In 1983, Jackson secured the release of Navy Pilot Robert Goodman,
captured by the Syrian government. Jackson traveled to Syria, appealed to Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad and Goodman was released. Jackson also secured the
release of 22 American prisoners in Cuba in 1984. Similarly, during the Clinton
administration, Jackson traveled to Kenya and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In the latter
instance, Jackson, along with Serbian Congressman Rod Blagojevich met with
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Jackson and Blagojevich secured the release
of three men who accidentally crossed the Macedonian border. In 2005, Jackson
traveled to Venezuela following the remarks by conservative Christian evangelists that
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader, be assassinated. Jackson met with Chavez and
addressed the Venezuelan Parliament. In addition to his work in Latin America,
Jackson was also a strong proponent of Palestinian rights and a close friend of Yasser
Arafat, founding Chairmen of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

Although not an early supporter of Barack Obama, Jackson eventually endorsed
Obama for the presidency of the United States in 2008. As his administration
progressed, Jackson was often critical of Obama’s lack of a comprehensive agenda to
assist African Americans. Calls for an urban agenda became more pronounced after the
murder of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown ignited the Black Lives Matter movement
(BLM) in 2013. In the 2016 presidential contest, Jackson endorsed Hillary Clinton after
she won the Democratic nomination. In 2020, he invited Joe Biden to address Rainbow
PUSH. After initially supporting Bernie Sanders, Jackson endorsed Biden after Sanders
left the race. He predicted that African American women would support Biden in large
numbers. In 2023, Jackson stepped down from the leadership of Rainbow PUSH due to
his advanced age and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. He has been hospitalized
numerous times for complications related to this disease.

Jesse Jackson’s involvement in Black civil rights leadership and social justice has
spanned more than 50 years. During that period he has reimagined and set the course
for the trajectory of Black Civil Rights. Focusing on economic and political
empowerment, Jackson’s work has increased Black presence in corporate America,
accentuated the centrality of Black businesses and the economic plight of Black
Americans as inextricably tied to societal advancement for African Americans. His
forays into international relations demonstrates the continued importance of African
Americans recognition of the social, cultural, political and economic ties that exist
between African Americans and the broader world. Jackson has also been central to
promoting the idea of self-empowerment and cultural awareness among African
Americans. His endorsement of the term African American reaffirmed the cultural ties
between African Americans and the African diaspora. His slogan “I am Somebody” and
“Black is Beautiful” continue to be widely used in the Black community. His presidential
runs remain significant, especially to this writer, as one of the first examples in modern
history of an African American who dared to dream. And in doing so lifted an entire race
to majestic heights.

Guest writer Dr. Stephen G. Hall is the founder and publisher of Historian Speaks

https://historianspeaks.org