"The Celebration of Negro History Week" in The Journal of Negro History Quotes
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Source: "The Celebration of Negro History Week" in The Journal of Negro History
Author: Carter G. Woodson
"We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice."
This is the meaning of Negro History Week. It is not so much a Negro History Week as a History Week. We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has influenced the development of civilization.
Context
This line was written by Carter G. Woodson in the article, "The Celebration of Negro History Week" inThe Journal of Negro History (April 1927).
Every February when Black History Month rolls around, you can thank Carter G. Woodson. He's the guy who invented Black History Month, though it started as Negro History Week way back in the '20s. Woodson's goals were simple—he wanted folks to realize that Black people had done a lot of cool stuff to contribute to the world. Yeah, we know. It was a novel idea.
But this quote reveals that Woodson wasn't just looking for people to do book reports on Black people for a week (or month). He wanted the world to notice that history included all people (not just white folks). Black people. Asian people. Muslim people. Women. Hey, it's not just white Christian guys doing all the inventing and discovering out there.
In fact, Woodson was confident that when people started looking at the history of the world they would see that lots of Black people had contributed to it. You wouldn't have look very hard to see that Black history was history. Black people weren't footnotes in the great story of the world—they were essential parts of it. Preach, Mr. Woodson.
Where you've heard it
This quote pops up a lot when folks are talking about how much we still need Black History Month because—let's face it—a lot of schools still teach it with the "Negro History" approach. One of these days this 90-year-old quote is really gonna sink in.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
It's never pretentious to preach the truth. Share this one far and wide and make February everyone's favorite month.