“We have to sort of assume that’s going to happen and try to work to make sure it doesn’t,” he said. He warned that achieving racial progress, such as electing Joe Biden as president, can trigger an immense backlash. What is systemic racism? Here's what it means and how you can help dismantle itįor example, Hirschman said he sees calls to move past the storming of the Capitol last month.
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Racism and white privilege: How to talk to your family, friends
That resentment is cultivated by groups including right-wing media and white supremacists, he said. “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history," he said.īefore the country can move past racial harm, there needs to be “truth, then accountability and then maybe reconciliation," said Dionne Grayman, who trains schools to have difficult conversations about race.įailing to understand the history of race and racism and a strong desire to overlook the worst aspects of racist violence in the United States has fueled resentment toward civil rights activism, said Dan Hirschman, an assistant professor of sociology at Brown University in Rhode Island. Woodson believed it was essential for young African Americans to understand and be proud of their heritage. Richard Wright, who was enslaved and became a civil rights advocate and author, lobbied for the celebration of the day, CNN reported, citing the National Constitution Center.Īlthough the day is not a federal holiday, President Harry Truman recognized National Freedom Day in 1949 and urged citizens to pause to contemplate its significance. 1 is National Freedom Day, the anniversary of the approval of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865. Woodson chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a famed abolitionist who escaped from slavery, and President Abraham Lincoln, who formally abolished slavery.įeb.
The US grapples with its history of slavery: The blueprint for dealing with it? Some say Brown University Why is Black History Month in February? It wasn't until 1976, during the height of the civil rights movement, that President Gerald Ford expanded the week into Black History Month. In 1926, Woodson proposed a national “Negro History Week," which was intended to showcase everything students learned about Black history throughout the school year, King said. He recognized that the American education system offered very little information about the accomplishments of African Americans and founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
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