Wikipedia Wednesday

Since the most recent SNL, when the skit above aired, I've been thinking about Black History Month. I am conflicted - while I applaud the focus on this shamefully neglected part of American and world history, I think it is a disservice to present it as a separate topic for 28 days instead of working it into the normal flow of historical study year-round. I feel that historical events are best understood when they are explained in the context of what else was happening in the world at that time. I was also curious - why is Black History Month in February? My first thought was, "Of course, it's the shortest month! If there's anything the establishment does well, it's insulting a minority group while pretending to honor them." So I turned to Wikipedia to find out.

In 1926, a group of African-American historians headed by Carter G. Woodson started what was then known as Negro History Week, choosing the second week in February to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became one of the leaders of the Abolitionist movement in the years before the Civil War. The response to this week of celebration was strong and grew stronger over the years, and in 1969 the Black United Students group at Kent State University proposed a full month staring the next year. In 1976, President Gerald Ford and the US government officially recognized the month of February as Black History Month. The UK and Canada followed, in 1987 and 1995 respectively.  

I was happy to see that the month was chosen for a specific purpose, and also proud that the movement to a full month was spearheaded by a college group here in Northeast Ohio. 

To celebrate Black History Month in my own way, I want to put a spotlight on Bayard Rustin. A posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient in 2013, Mr. Rustin was a close adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King and was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington in 1963. His list of achievements and the many causes he supported can be seen at his Wikipedia page. What makes him stand out to me (and why he may not be as well-known as he deserves) is the fact that he was a openly gay man as early as the 1950s. The amount of bullshit he must have faced because of his race and sexuality cannot be overestimated, but he continued to work tirelessly for the betterment of others until his death in 1987.