Schooled on black history

The Times editorial board was politely respectful of Black History Month – even as Op-Ed writers tore it apart.

February 21, 2008

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Black History Month was established in 1976, as an evolution of Negro History Week (founded half a century earlier by Carter G. Woodson), and has since become a staple of the nation's elementary school classrooms and textbooks.

Times editorials, on the other hand, have paid little attention. The editorial board's first mention of "Negro History Week" was little more than a half-hearted announcement of the Week's 40th anniversary:

Negro History Week
February 17, 1966

For 18 years, each time with added significance, Negro History Week has been observed in the United States. It is underway now, in the anniversary month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

In public exercises throughout the Los Angeles area, the salient facts of American history as influence by Negroes will be stressed. This is a worthwhile, even necessary, endeavor.

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History deserves commendation for its dedicated effort to chronicle the role of an ethnic group that has done much and is doing more to make our country great.

Three years later, the board phoned it in again.

Negro History Week
February 11, 1969

Negro History Week is being observed in the Los Angeles area with a series of rallies, receptions and workshops.

Theme of the nine-day observance: "Creating a New African-American Immage." The events, linked to Brotherhood Crusade Month and Brotherhood Week, are combined with a scholarship drive by the California Teachers Assn. to assist minority group candidates for teaching credentials.

All residents of the area, both black and white should join in studying and appreciating the historic contributions of Negroes to Southern California and the nation.

The Times gave considerably more attention to Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

Holiday With History
January 14, 1985 Black Americans in general are better off and better educated than ever before. But, despite the overall progress and spectacular individual achievements that have resulted in career gains unimaginable in King's day, there is much ground still to be gained.

As a group they are still twice as likely to be poor or unemployed. The current jobless rate is 15%. Worse, black long-term unemployment, the measure of those who have given up hope of finding work, rose 72% during the first term of the Reagan Administration. Black students still score lowest on the standardized tests that often open the door to economic success, despite recent improvements on college-entrance examinations and on tests in lower elementary grades.

Progress comes more slowly than it did a decade ago. But movement toward equality is measured not in years but in lifetimes. King's successors are not sprinters but marathoners, and, thanks to him, the course is shorter. That history is worth noting even on a holiday.

By contrast the 80s saw growing interest in Black History Month on the Op-Ed page. And these commentators' views weren't quite so rosy:

Once-Popular Black History Month Might as Well Not Exist

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1. cont: My neighbor from Nigeria does not call herself African American for she knows where she originally came from. Do I? My ancestor came here in chains from many places in Africa. That is why I am "African Ameirican" and she is not. She is Nigerian/American (note the slash). you ask why we should have a seperate (you ommited) holidays (in your comment.) Clever! Why shouldn't we as a nation? It is AMERICAN history thanks to the people who made it happen. Maybe we need another 40 or 400 before you and the rest of the media realize who the "African Americans" are and the History they inhirited. Rachel H
Submitted by: rachel
10:52 PM PST, Feb 21, 2008

2. continued fr previous or to your child? Should we go back to colored or negro and gift wrap our identity to any one black person who happened to live in our country after the road to freedom had been paved by the freedom riders and to civil rights activists who fought with their lives to give it to us? "African American" is something we take pride in They and only they that made the change that you apparently still need to be reminded of. continued
Submitted by: rachel
10:44 PM PST, Feb 21, 2008

3. I'm glad you asked the questionThe answer is :not until people comprehend and get it through their heads once and for all what it means to be an African American. The people who fought for that attribute. The people who freed themselves from bondage. Is it a plain oversight,ignorance or a clever tactic to put all new arrivals from African countries as African American once they become citizens of our country? Explain to me please what do the terms African American mean to you?
Submitted by: rachel
10:41 PM PST, Feb 21, 2008

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