Black History, History
Carter G. Woodson Launched Negro History Week in 1926.
Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month, is an annual observance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. It is celebrated annually in the United States and Canada in February and the United Kingdom in October.Black History Month had its beginnings in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week”. (more…)
History
James Beckwourth
James Beckwourth was a contemporary of Kit Carson, Davy Crockett,
and Daniel Booneand, like them, he was tough enough to succeed in the Wild West. Born a slave, he lived with several Native American tribes from 1826 to 1834, including the Absaroka (Crow) people. From them he earned various names acknowledging his increasing honor and braveryfirst White-Handled Knife, then Morning Star (in 1856, when he was made a tribal leader), and, later, Antelope.
In 1844, while leading a wagon train of new settlers, Beckwourth discovered a passage through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. That pass, now called Beckwourth Pass, became an overland wagon route to the upper Sacramento Valley. Beckwourth carried the mail by horseback from Monterey to southern California in 1847. It is believed that he was poisoned by the Absaroka people during a visit in 1864, to keep him from returning to live among people in the outside world.
Black History, History, Other
Charles H. Wesley
12-02 marks the birthday of Charles Harris Wesley in 1891. He was an African-American historian, educator, and minister who was an early proponent of African-American studies.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Charles Wesley attended public schools in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky and then went on to receive a B. A. at Fisk University in 1911, an M. A. in economics at Yale University in 1913, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1925. Wesley’s doctorate in history was the third awarded by Harvard to an African-American. Wesley served on the Howard University faculty from 1913 to 1942. (more…)
