October marks Black History Month in the UK, and we will be celebrating it here at North Kent College.
But how many of us really know the origins of this important month? Let’s take a quick look.
Black History Month was only officially celebrated by the UK for the first time in 1987, although it was first recognised by the US government eleven years earlier in 1976.
Its origins do stretch back much further and lie with American historian, author and journalist Carter Godwin Woodson who was born in 1875.
Woodson was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora (the term used for the collection of communities descended from Native Africans or people from Africa) and he founded The Journal of Negro History in 1916.
Ten years later, in 1926, he pioneered the celebration of what was known at the time as ‘Negro History Week’.
Initially the event was designated for the second week in February in the USA to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery and became a key social activist in the 19th century.
The event was expanded in 1970, and since 1976 every US president has officially designated February as Black History Month in the US.
The event was officially celebrated in the UK for the first time in 1987, the year of the African Jubilee
Ghanian analyst and activist Akyaaba Addai-Sebo played a big role in organising the UK’s first Black History month. Addai-Sebo moved to the UK three years earlier after seeking refuge from political persecution in Ghana at the time.
He later spoke of his motivations behind organising the event: “I was stirred up in the mid 1980s by the identity crisis that Black children faced. A crisis of identity faced us squarely despite the Race Awareness campaigns of the Greater London Council and the Inner London Education Authority. More had to be done and so I conceived an annual celebration of the contributions of Africa, Africans, and people of African descent to world civilisation.”
We will be marking the month here at North Kent College by having a focus on black history in lessons, and hearing from guest speaker Andreena Leeanne, a self-care workshop facilitator and lived experience speaker, formerly named as the 2018 Black History Month Role Model winner.
To find out what else is planned for the month visit the Black History Month website.