Why do we celebrate Black History Month?

In 1976 then-President Gerald Ford officially acknowledged that February would be considered Black History Month. The purpose of Black History Month is to remember and to focus on how African-Americans have impacted and done for the United States.

Who are some of the people we should remember during Black History month?

Annie Lee Cooper played a significant part in the civil rights movements and accompanied Martin Luther King Jr, and, without her, Black Americans may not have the right to vote. There is a movie called Selma that is based on her life. Sadly the movie debuted four years after she passed away at age 100, but thanks to Oprah Winfrey her story was able to come alive.

Michelle Obama and Barack Obama were the First Lady and the President of the United States from 2009 to 2017.  Michelle Obama is a lawyer and a writer. She has written many books, her most known being Becoming which she wrote in 2018. “Through her four main initiatives, she became a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.” according to the White House website. Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and served two terms of presidency which ended in 2016. He married Michelle Obama on October 3, 1992.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, and died on April 4, 1968, at 39 years old. “standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.” He won the Nobel Peace Prize when he was 35 years old and used the prize money to help further the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa Parks is known for refusing to give her seat up to a white man while riding home on the bus. For refusing to give up her seat she was arrested. She also helped Martin Luther King Jr. organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After the boycott, she, her husband, and her mother all moved to Detroit to live with her brother where she worked as an administrative aide until she retired in 1988. “In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, to serve Detroit’s youth,” says History.com.

It is important that we remember why we celebrate Black History Month because we can celebrate Black achievements and it provides a reminder of how bad things used to be and how we can change to be better.