They Cannot Write Us Out of History

Why Every Year is Black History Year

Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Source: Penguin Classics

Black History Month is a celebration rooted in the noble efforts of historian Carter G. Woodson to uplift the historic contributions of Black Americans that were, and continue to be, overlooked, underappreciated, and even erased.

Woodson’s life story is nothing short of extraordinary. He was born in 1875 to illiterate parents who were formerly enslaved. He had to put off schooling while he worked in the coal mines of West Virginia. He entered high school at the age of 20, completed his diploma in less than two years, and went on to become the second Black American, after W.E.B. Du Bois, to obtain a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and the first and only child of former slaves to obtain a Ph.D. in history, period.

Woodson spearheaded the first celebration of Negro History Week in February 1926. The choice of February was deliberate, as Black Americans had been celebrating the February birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln for decades.

With Negro History Week, Woodson helped expand the public’s basic knowledge of the amazing achievements of Black Americans in this country, which is a remarkable feat in itself. But what impresses me most about this history is that, at a more fundamental level, Woodson helped expand the public’s imagination of what is worth celebrating and remembering each year.

As historian Daryl Michael Scott writes, Woodson successfully asked “the public to extend their study” of Black history and to expand the celebration “of two great men to a great race.” By the late 1960’s, as young Black Americans “on college campuses became increasingly conscious of links with Africa,” Negro History Week expanded into the month-long celebration familiar to us today.

I believe the time is ripe to once again expand our collective imagination of what it means to celebrate Black history. While the powers that be seek to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) across all spheres of public life, let this year, and the next year, and every year after that be known as Black History Year. That’s right. Black History can, and should, be celebrated every single day of the year.

I am the child of Nigerian immigrants, and my mother raised me through the stories of our ancestors. I could not go a day without hearing an important lesson that she had learned from her father or mother. “You must never return a wrong with another wrong.” “The point of school is not to be a student for a few years but to learn how to be a learner for life.” These are but two of the many lessons that my grandparents learned from their parents, ancestors who I never met but whose wisdom continues to guide me day after day.

My ancestors live through my mother’s stories. And in honor of Black History Year, it is my privilege to share these stories with you in my debut novel The Dreams of Our Ancestors. It is my hope that this book will inspire you to seek out your ancestors’ stories, and live in the presence of their memory, not just in February, but at all times of the year. When we honor our ancestors and share their stories with the world, no one can write us out of history.