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Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. In 1926, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History sponsored a national Negro History week, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. The legacy of Black people in America is is one of strength, vigilance, perserverance, and accomplishment. In science, art, politics, sports, education, and in every other field of endeavor, Black people's achievements have changed the way we think, speak, and live. Castlemont celebrates and appreciates annother opportunity to shine a light on the beauty of Blackness. Visit us each day of February as we highlight 28 days of Black excellence, from A to Z.
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Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950)
"The Father of Black History Month"
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The Pan-African flag was designed by Marcus Garvey to represent people of the African Diaspora, to symbolize "black freedom, simple." It was adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) at a conference in New York City in 1920. Garvey thought of a flag as necessary symbol of political maturity. "The fact that the black race did not have a flag was considered by Garvey as a mark of the political impotence of the black race." A flag would be proof that the black race had politically come of age. The Pan-African flag's colors: Red is for blood — both the blood shed by Africans who died in their fight for liberation, and the shared blood of the African people. Black represented black people. And green is a symbol of growth and the natural fertility of Africa.
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Lift Every Voice and Sing – often called “The Black National Anthem” – was written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) in 1899.
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing
Lyrics:
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
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