Where’s the ‘History’ in Black History Month?

On December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia a man was born from enslaved parents. Having little opportunity to grow during the Reconstruction Era in Virginia, he, his parents, and his eight siblings move to West Virginia. This is where he worked in coalfields to keep his family afloat. At the age of 20, he had saved enough money from his labor to get a formal education at Frederick Douglass High School. What may seem like a right to every person in the United States was once a privilege to many African Americans. Woodson had to commit hours of labor to just get a high school diploma. Despite this personal progress, many African Americans in his time still didn’t have a high school education. 

He received his diploma after just two years of formal education because he was self-taught before he went to school. He received his undergraduate degree from Berea College. He then continued pursuing higher education, receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago in one year. Finally, he received his Doctorate from Harvard University, being the second black man in history to do so and the first black man with parents who were once enslaved.

Later on, he recognized that Black history wasn’t being taught in schools. The school curriculum wasn’t teaching the roles that African Americans had within the United States or how they were treated. 

It’s the summer of 1915. African Americans from around the country travel to Washington D.C. to see exhibits of their progress as a community. Woodson appears at the 3-week convention. The convention celebrates the birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation, along with his fellow University of Chicago alumni. A crowd of up to 12 thousand people gathered to see the exhibits. This inspired Woodson to create the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).

“I believe Hastings Public Schools does embrace culture and diversity on some level. I feel if Hastings Public wants to be fully inclusive I think we would start a push to teach the real history of the United States all the good and bad, not information cherry-picked by book publishers,” Physical Education teacher at Hastings Middle School and business owner Jimmie Combs said. “I think we could do a better job of celebrating all cultures. Doing that would take a lot of time, effort and planning. I think it could help students feel more welcomed because they see a part of them being celebrated.”

The recognition of black history is the point of Black History Month. The Declaration of Black History Week by Woodson and his Association was chosen in February of 1926 based on Abraham Lincoln and Fredick Douglass’ birthdays. Although he believed that these men are great in their own ways, he wanted to acknowledge every person who was involved in the progression of society, and not hold people like Lincoln on a pedestal. He wanted Black History month to be a time of education, not blind support. Multi-faceted black men like Combs hold up these beliefs of a history-based Black History month. Although he is critical of certain ways HPS upholds these beliefs or lack of, he provides ways to improve.

“Training is key and people taking the training have to come in with an open mind,” Combs said. “I have always been a firm believer in ‘It starts from the top’. Meaning if the top person or people embrace something and are excited and passionate about it, others will feel the excitement and want to follow.”

Well before his death in 1950, Woodson believed that the weekly celebrations—not the study or celebration of black history–would eventually come to an end. In fact, Woodson never viewed black history as a one-week affair. He pressed for schools to use Black History Week to demonstrate what students learned all year. (ASALH)

Although there are ways for HPS to improve, administrators prove that HPS upholds Woodson’s belief of year-round education of black history.

“The school as a whole is required by the State of Nebraska to teach Multicultural Education throughout the whole school year. Therefore, teachers will teach lessons in their content area about diverse people and cultures within their content area. It’s just not February when that happens,” Hastings High Principal Jeff Linden pointed out. “Some teachers will have more Multicultural lessons throughout the month of February that will highlight the accomplishments of Black People. I know the Media Center is highlighting books for Black History month and the Orchestra teacher is having the students perform a piece by a Black composer. There are many other things teachers are doing in the building to highlight these accomplishments as well.”

Linden highlights how Hastings Public Schools is willing to help anyone coming from any background.

“The great thing about the community of Hastings is that there are programs that are designed to help disadvantaged people from all walks of life and having a Community Liaison at Hastings High puts us on the front lines to help these students and families,” Linden said.  “HPS does have the Free/Reduce Food Program for these families and the Food Pantry is another resource that HHS has to help these families.”

As Combs said previously, motivation starts from the top. Linden’s ideas about Black History teaching in HPS should, in theory, eventually lead to the wanted results.

“History is important to all walks of life and having an understanding of a Multicultural history is very important because no matter where you are from, understanding our past and the accomplishments of different cultures will give us an appreciation of each other and it shows how far we have come as a society,” Linden said. “When you look at history there are things that are negative and there are things that are positive and it comes down to what have we learned from our history and how can we respect each other and how can we work together to build a brighter future for the next generation and not move backward in history.”

African American students at Hastings High also have opinions on Black History month. Freshman Lauryn Boutin is one of them.

“I feel like HHS does an okay job at embracing culture and diversity but I don’t know,” Boutin said. “I feel like they could work on talking about it more because I feel like they don’t really talk about it much. I haven’t heard anything about Black History Month in any classroom or anything.”

Boutin emphasizes that if Hastings High is going to celebrate Black History, it should be talked about more. Despite this, she feels conflicted about Black History Month’s impact.

“I feel like it’s sort of necessary. It’s not like it really does anything. It just shows awareness,” Boutin said.

Boutin says that being a black student at Hastings High isn’t difficult. She’s just a minority.

“There are only really a few of us [black students]. I don’t really see many black students,” Boutin said. “I feel like everything is fine being a black student. There are just a lot of white people and sometimes they say things that are kind of out of pocket [unnecessary]. You don’t know whether or not to say anything because you don’t want to get in trouble or anything.”

Hastings Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Schneider has an open perspective on the district from all levels. He explains that many things are done on each level.

“I’ll give some examples: A bellringer at the middle school in February. Almost all the bellringers are related to Black History Month. Mrs. Mays talks about how she doesn’t really do specific things in February. She does them all throughout the year. Specific reading books at the elementary level when we are working on reading skills. Mr. Ferguson at the middle school talked about Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War that, if I understood it correctly, were a group of soldiers who were African American who didn’t get a lot of credit,” Schneider said.

Schneider also explains similar things to Linden. He says that HPS should teach Black history all year round. This also matches what Woodson had envisioned for Black History Month. 

“I think that the key is that we don’t just do this in February, we do it all year long because it’s part of history classes,” Schneider said. 

Schneider speaks from experience when he says that mutual respect is important.

“I’ve worked for Hastings public for 29 years and probably something I’ve learned the most personally; I was a teacher, assistant principal, a principal, I’ve worked with so many different families who come from so many different situations. The thing I would take away from that is our number one mission is to do the best we can to teach our students that what’s the most important thing in the world is to treat all people well. And to be honest, I think a lot of our adult leaders around the world could use a lesson on this too,” Schneider said.

Overall, work is done by Hastings Public Schools to make sure Black History Month is recognised. Still, many believe that there is still work to be done. Boutin doesn’t believe Black History Month, in general, leaves much of an impact and Combs believes that roots are deep and it will take hard work to properly change. 

“I believe HPS does what is expected but more could be done,” Combs said. “Training, Training Training.”