Black History Month celebrated in US

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - February marks Black History Month in the United States, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the key role of blacks in the country's history.

It coincided with important dates in the black communities, and others, including the the birthdays of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12 and legendary slave-turned-statesman Frederick Douglas on Feb. 14.

W. E. B. DuBois, an important civil rights leader and co-founder of the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was born in February 1868.

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in February 1965, granting blacks the right to vote. In 1870, the first black U.S. senator, Hiram R. Revels, took the oath of office.

In 1909, the powerful watch-dog organization NAACP was founded.

In 1960, in what would become a civil rights movement milestone, a group of black Greensboro, N.C., college students began a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter.

And Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X, the trailblazing Muslim leader was shot to death in the Audubon Ballroom in New York.

The legacy of the powerful speeches of Malcolm X has been electrifying communities for decades.

One of his famous quotes, "Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it," has inspired generations in the fight against tyranny all over the world.

According to historians, the celebration of the month is owed to historian Carter G. Woodson who was born to former slave parents and later earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Woodson, cited as the "father of the black history," helped establish the "Association for the Study of Negro Life and History" in 1915, founded the respected Journal of Negro History in 1916 and eventually launched "Negro History Week" in 1926.

The celebration continued until the late 1960s when "Negro History Week" was transformed by the Civil Rights Movement into Black History Month.

It was not until 1976 that Black History Month would be officially recognized by the federal government.