“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek,” former President Barrack Obama said.
Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month, came by announcing the 2025 theme of Black History Month to be African Americans and Labor. The theme focuses on how black identity was roughly handled in the past, seen by how they were forcefully imported from their countries to the United States to provide labor in places like plantations and being used for slavery.
The celebration of Black history month began in 1962 as Negro History Week. Every year during the second month, February is considered to be the period when Black and African Americans remember their past and compare it to the present to celebrate their achievements. At present, Blacks are no longer perceived as a crowd that moved from their homelands to be employed as laborers, but by the fact that they tirelessly work in every situations to live better lives especially in terms of education where they have the ability to gain high education level degrees, like the Masters and Doctorate degree. As a Black student myself, I am committed to get as far as a Doctorate degree not only to be a source to the community, but to also represent the enthusiasm of my race/identity. February is considered Black History Month because it coincides with the birthdays of two prominent people in Black American History who fought for freedom: former US President Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and Fredrick Douglass, a renowned abolitionist and orator. Because both have birthdays in February, Black historian Carter G. Woodson appointed this month to highlight Black History.
Former US President Abraham Lincoln contributed to the fight for Black freedom in the United States by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were to be freed, effectively turning the Civil War into a fight to end slavery. This paved the way for the eventual passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide. President Abraham Lincoln also supported the recruitment of Black soldiers into the Union Army and strongly supported the 13th Amendment, which permanently abolished slavery throughout the United States.
Orator Frederick Douglass contributed to the fight for Black freedom in the United States by recruiting Black men to fight in the U.S. Army, including two of his sons, who served in the famous 45th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The hard work these two Black men put in to fight for their freedom made them qualify to be remembered in Black History Month.
In my opinion, the main focus of celebrating Black History Month is to educate people on how Black people lived in the United States in the past and teach young Black students about their origin. All in all, their narrated stories inspire others to work hard to live better lives compared to the past. I, as a Black student who come from Uganda in East Africa, believe that when it came to slavery, our ancestors were cruelly forced to immigrate to the United States to work as laborers. Besides the labor activities, our ancestors were also used for the slave trade by the white people.
All that was done to our ancestors impacts me. I want to know about the past of my culture and focus on the future to achieve the best in my life.
Some of the activities that are done to respect Black History Month include reading books by black authors, visiting museums focused on African American history, attending lectures by Bblack activists/historians, watching documentary movies about how Blacks lived in the United States, and participating in hosting book clubs centered around Black Literature.
Black people didn’t only stop at narrating stories about their experiences in the United States, but also turned that interdisciplinary approach into song lyrics that could encourage others to stand up and fight for their freedom. A good example is the song Glory by John Legend and Commons. The art of this song clearly shows the tears Black people have shed in the United States due to historical oppression. It also shows people the reality of the lives our ancestors lived and uses its lyrics to motivate those listening to the song to come together to fight racism and inequality. “Jesus got His crown in front of the crowd,” artist Common said, in the lyrics of Glory. Common’s quote clearly shows an example of how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fought and won His crown as a King, showcasing how Black people can fight injustice and inequality as well.
“The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro and other minority groups, is the price of its destruction,” Martin Luther King JR said.
