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You can celebrate Black History regardless of what presidential memos say.
There are events here in Philly, like the opening of the latest exhibit at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Free, As One: Black Worldmaking in the Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers. The opening reception takes place February 6 from 6pm to 8pm.
The documentary Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round screens at The Weitzman on February 6 starting with an open bar reception at 6:30pm. The film covers the 1960 protests against segregation at Glen Echo Park outside Washington D.C., the first organized interracial protest of the Civil Rights Movement.
Hyatt Centric Center City Philadelphia launched its second annual Black History Month Showcase, which is open now through mid-March and features a mix of artwork by local Black artists. See it free at 1620 Chancellor Street.
Most importantly, find out who your federal representatives are and reach out. Call their offices and tell them directly why recognizing the achievements of Black Americans is important.
The Philadelphia Citizen has highlighted Black scientists, politicians, inventors, innovators, writers, leaders, and thinkers in our Black History Month All-Stars series.
The 2nd Annual Citizen of the Year Awards Dinner takes place Tuesday, February 25, at the Fitler Club Ballroom, 1 S. 24th Street in Center City, Philadelphia.
Welcome to the enhanced audio edition of James Peterson’s story
And go here for more audio articles, interviews and event coverage from CitizenCast
Commemorate Black History Month
About historical Black icons
At the Citizen of the Year Awards
To this story in CitizenCast
BY James Peterson
Feb. 04, 2025
Carter G. Woodson was mad. His anger was steeped in a radical and restorative rage informed by the righteous fury of a scholar who witnessed the systematic erasure of Black history, culture, and intellectual contributions in American education.
The founder of Negro History Week, which evolved into Black History Month beginning in February 1976, Woodson dedicated his life to correcting the false narratives that sought to disinherit African Americans from their historical and intellectual lineage. His seminal 1933 work, The Miseducation of the Negro, remains a deft diatribe against the insidious forms of erasure that continue to plague Black identity.
Woodson recognized that education was not merely about acquiring knowledge but about shaping perceptions of self and community. He understood that Black Americans were taught not just what to think but how to unthink themselves. For Woodson, “To handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one’s aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage and crime.”
This version of the U.S. presidency and, by extension, the federal government is explicitly anti-Black. And one of the most effective ways to practice anti-Black racism is through erasure.
It is impossible to read these words in the 21st century without thinking deeply about the school-to-prison pipeline or the intractable plague of gun violence in the city of Philadelphia.
Woodson argued that this form of ideological violence in education was more pernicious than physical lynching because it ensured its own perpetuation. If Black people were indoctrinated to see themselves as inherently inferior, then they would remain ill-equipped to resist systems that treated them as less than human.
This is why celebrating Black History Month requires all of us to examine our commitment to education — its meaning and its practice in our communities. This is also why BHM often takes up and takes on educational themes — the proliferation of Black facts that matter to American history, the acknowledgment of important historical benchmarks, and the animating impulse to learn more about Black people’s contributions to the United States of America.
For Woodson, this racist erasure extended to language and literature. “In the study of language in school, pupils were made to scoff at the Negro dialect as some peculiar possession of the Negro which they should despise rather than be directed to study the background of this language as a broken-down African tongue — in short, to understand their own linguistic history.”
The dismissal of African American English (AAE) — also labeled as African American Language (AAL), Black English Vernacular (BEV), African American Vernacular English (AAVE), or Ebonics — was part of a broader pattern of discrediting Black intellectual and cultural production. Even Woodson thought of this language as “broken-down,” but there is no more sinister way to undermine the humanity of an entire race of people than to discredit their capacity to think, speak and write. Woodson understood that reclaiming linguistic heritage was not just an academic exercise but an act of self-determination.
“To handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one’s aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage and crime.” — Carter G. Woodson, originator of Black History Month
Woodson also paid attention to many of the ways that African contributions to literature were systematically ignored. “From literature the African was excluded altogether. He was not supposed to have expressed any thought worth knowing. The philosophy in the African proverbs and in the rich folklore of that continent was ignored to give preference to that developed on the distant shores of the Mediterranean.”
The historical texts of great African empires, such as Tarikh al-Sudan, chronicling the Songhai Empire, were neglected in favor of Eurocentric histories that cast Africa as a continent without intellectual tradition. The works of scholars like Abd ar-Rahman al-Sa’di, who meticulously documented the political and social structures of pre-colonial (west) Africa, were left unread, reinforcing the false narrative that Black history began with slavery. This is complicated, but it is also true that these days, many Black people — American Descendants Of Slavery Advocacy Foundation, along with Foundational Black Americans and American Freedmen — are now more than willing to join this effort in severing Black Americans from any connectivity to the African diaspora.
This historical amnesia is not just an academic issue — it is a political one. This was made evident when April Ryan, a veteran Grio and MSNBC White House correspondent, recently asked the Trump administration’s press secretary whether the White House planned to commemorate Black History Month in 2025. Ryan asked if there was any “word” on whether or not the White House would acknowledge Black History Month in 2025. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: “As far as I know, this White House certainly still intends to celebrate — and we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed, have made to our great country.”
Ryan’s question was more than rhetorical. It was a test of whether this nation would continue to acknowledge Black history under this race-baiting president and in the face of rising White nationalist rhetoric, complimented by legislative efforts to censor discussions of race and history in classrooms. April Ryan knew that this White House would not uphold the tradition that Woodson fought so tirelessly to establish, that it would advance the growing trend of erasing Black contributions from the national narrative.
A recent memo circulating within the Defense Intelligence Agency apparently calls for an end to internal celebrations of Black History Month. “DIA will pause all activities and events related to Agency Special Emphasis Programs, effective immediately and until further notice. Additionally, Special Observances hosted throughout the year by the Command Element, Directorates, and Special Offices are also paused.”
In commemorating Black History Month, we do more than celebrate past achievements; we resist the forces that would have us forget. We counter the headwinds of hate with the steady force of truth.
The DIA memo provides a full list of dates / events that will be paused, including MLK Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, Women’s History Month, Holocaust Day/Days of Remembrance, National Hispanic Heritage Month, and more. (ABC News reported that DIA will still observe MLK and Juneteenth as federal holidays.) No one who seriously commemorates these cultural moments would rely on the DIA or even the federal government itself to acknowledge and/or celebrate important figures and watershed moments in this nation’s history. The DIA memo is just another signal — another sign that this version of the U.S. presidency and, by extension, the federal government is explicitly anti-Black. And one of the most effective ways to practice anti-Black racism is through erasure.
Woodson warned against this very kind of erasure when he wrote: “These ‘educated’ people, however, decry any such thing as race consciousness; and in some respects they are right. They do not like to hear such expressions as ‘Negro literature,’ ‘Negro poetry,’ ‘African art,’ or ‘thinking Black’ … ‘Aren’t we all Americans? Then, whatever is American is as much the heritage of the Negro as of any other group in this country.’”
Woodson’s words reveal the paradox of Black identity in America: to be commanded to assimilate while being systematically excluded from the narratives that define American history and culture. His warning continues to ring true today.
In commemorating Black History Month, we do more than celebrate past achievements; we resist the forces that would have us forget. We counter the headwinds of hate with the steady force of truth. We reclaim the narratives that have been stolen and reaffirm our connection to a lineage that extends beyond the shores of America to the heart of Africa. We do this because we know, as Woodson knew, that knowledge of self is the foundation of liberation.
Happy BHM to all who celebrate. MORE FROM JAMES PETERSON
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