why black, of course!

Why do we teach black history in school?

The chapters and courses listed below offer video lessons, articles and quizzes to help students navigate through important eras in the complex history of Black America.

Why study Black History in its own right?

 · What was vitally important was sussing out a definitive answer for why some people had black skin. The easy answers, of course, were melanin and proximity to the equator, but when you believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, the right answer to this question must come from the Bible.

Is the emphasis on Black History too divisive?

Course Length: 30 hours Course Week: 26 June–1 July 2022 Format: in person, Princeton University in Princeton, NJ Fee: $1,395 In the 1970s, librarians, cataloguers, and researchers confronted an issue that was barely conceivable to previous generations: a surplus of Black-authored books. Prior bibliographers had taken stock of a delimited set of authors from the …

Why should we study Black History Month?

 · ABC News employees share the importance of Black History Month and what it means to them. In 1925, Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History," had a bold ...

Was James Baldwin abusive?

Brooding, silent, tyrannical (he forced his wife to call him ''Mr. Baldwin'') and physically abusive, he was also a storefront preacher of morbid intensity: ''He could be chilling in the pulpit and indescribably cruel in his personal life.

What was James Baldwin fighting for?

Baldwin's works helped to raise public awareness of racial and sexual oppression. His honest portrayal of his personal experiences in a national context challenged America to uphold the values it promised on equality and justice.

What inspired James Baldwin to write?

In 1948, at age 24, Baldwin left for Paris, where he hoped to find enough distance from the American society he grew up in to write about it. After writing a number of pieces for various magazines, Baldwin went to a small village in Switzerland to finish his first novel.

Who was James Baldwin's lover?

Lucian HappersbergerBaldwin also met Lucian Happersberger, a Swiss boy, seventeen years old at the time of their first meeting, who came to France in search of excitement. Happersberger became Baldwin's lover, especially in Baldwin's first two years in France, and Baldwin's near-obsession for some time after.

What were James Baldwin's beliefs?

Baldwin's Pentecostal experience is, in fact, essential to understanding his complex views on Christianity, which he espoused in his speeches and publications. His experience in the pulpit also served to inflect his overall stance on religion, and his ultimate rejection of it in the name of humanistic love.

How was James Baldwin connected to the Civil Rights Movement?

Civil Rights Involvement Baldwin later joined the Congress of Racial Equality, causing him to travel across the American South lecturing on his views of racial inequality. Baldwin became so involved in the movement that he was featured on the cover of Time for their Spring release on May 17, 1963.

What does Baldwin say about the position of an American writer?

An American writer fights his way to one of the lowest rungs on the American social ladder by means of pure bull-headedness and an indescribable series of old jobs. He probably has been a “regular fellow” for much of his adult life, and it is not easy for him to step out of that lukewarm bath.

What is James Baldwin famous quotes?

“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

What disease did James Baldwin have?

stomach cancerJames Baldwin, 63, the novelist, playwright, poet and essayist who wrote eloquently and angrily about racial injustice and the black experience in 20th century America, died of stomach cancer yesterday at his home at St. Paul de Vence in the South of France.

Who is Lucien James Baldwin?

Lucien Happersberger, was an bisexual Swiss painter that author James Baldwin once called “the one true love story of my life.” They met in Paris in 1949 when Happersberger was 17 and were lifelong partners apart from a brief marriage Happersberger had to actress, Diana Sands.

How was James Baldwin when he died?

James Baldwin, whose passionate, intensely personal essays in the 1950's and 60's on racial discrimination in America helped break down the nation's color barrier, died of cancer last night at his home in southern France. He was 63 years old.

Why did James Baldwin leave America?

In “The New Lost Generation,” an article in the July 11, 1961 Esquire Magazine, Baldwin attributes his decision to leave America to his recognition that attempts to deal with racism and inhumanity through political or social systems was a process that always led to “failure, elimination, and rejection.”

Why was slavery justified in the United States?

Slavery in the United States was justified by Christian pastors who believed the Bible taught that blacks were a cursed race in need redemption. Slavery, then, was an act of benevolence — white slave owners giving their black charges a far better life than they would have had in Africa.

Did Cain's descendants have black skin?

These Jesus-loving racists went to great lengths to trace the lineage of Cain down through history, showing — in their minds anyway — that Cain’s descendants had black skin. Of important note was the fact that Noah’s son Ham married a black descendant of Cain, thus continuing the curse down through human history.

Why did black people flee the Jim Crow South?

In the midst of this pandemic, many Black people fled the segregated Jim Crow South for a promise of better life in Northern cities where they were instead met with prejudice, violence and segregationist policies. Public health officials and medical workers blamed Southern Black migrants for spreading the flu.

What are the major medical associations that are concerned about structural racism?

Even the most prominent medical and public health professional associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association, have released public statements calling for urgent recognition of and attention toward the health impacts of structural racism.

What is structural racism?

Structural racism is inextricably intertwined with the political and legal systems in the United States, a legacy that predates the country’s founding, through the genocide of Indigenous populations and the kidnapping and selling of millions of Africans into slavery. Preeminent public health scholar and former president ...

How does structural racism affect health?

Hundreds of years of unjust and racist policies and practices in the United States continue to impact where people may live and work, the air they may breathe, the quality of their education and their access to healthcare. All of this affects health and wellbeing. Scholars have produced a large body of research examining the health impacts of structural racism. Even the most prominent medical and public health professional associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association, have released public statements calling for urgent recognition of and attention toward the health impacts of structural racism.

Is history merely something to be read?

History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. —James Baldwin, “Unnameable Objects, Unspeakable Crimes,” 1966

Who was the father of black history?

In 1925, Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History," had a bold idea. That year, he announced "Negro History Week" -- a celebration of a people that many in this country at the time believed had no place in history.

Who started Black History Month?

Carter G. Woodson started the tradition of celebrating black history. What does Black History Month mean to you? ABC News employees share the importance of Black History Month and what it means to them. In 1925, Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History," had a bold idea.

When did African Americans get the right to vote?

It also marks the sesquicentennial of the 15th Amendment, which gave black men the right to vote in 1870, following the Civil War. "Through voting-rights campaigns and legal suits from the turn of the 20th century to the mid-1960s, African Americans made their voices heard as to the importance of the vote," ASALH says on its website.

What is the name of the organization that Woodson founded?

Since Woodson's death in 1950, the organization that he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History -- now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) -- has fought to keep his legacy alive. Now, nearly 105 years after its founding, one of the organization's biggest challenges is keeping ...

What does it mean to be black?

One definition of black is being dark skinned. That is a vague definition, of course, because that is dark? Another definition says “To be considered black in the United Sates not even half of one’s ancestry must be African black. Black is any person with any known African black ancestry.”

What is a black person?

For the sake of common social understanding, most of us now consider a black person one that has ancestry originating from Africa recently enough (recently being relative) that it has influence over their appearance, culture, AND how mass society views them.

What to do if you don't believe you are black?

If you don’t believe that you are “black” and posses the features, the culture, and family heritage of what is considered black in America, declare that to mass society. You will quickly, as if you haven’t already, learn what your race is in America. That is the reality.

What test was used to classify who was white and who wasn't?

There was also the pencil test , a test that was prevalent in South Africa during Apartheid. It was used to classify who was white and who wasn’t.

How did the Transatlantic Slave Trade affect the population of the Americas?

Ninety five percent of Africans that came to the Americas through the slave trade were scattered in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Why is financial power still largely in the hands of white minorities in the region?

She also added, “Financial power is still largely in the hands of white minorities in the region because of business patterns that have shifted little in the centuries.”. That is a common thread between black communities, regardless of being African American or Afro-Latino.

When did race start to exist?

As for race being an European manufactured concept, that is mostly true. Race as we know it now did not really exist until mid-16th century when the colonization of the Americas started. Of course, there were always ways of separating people and where they come from based on their appearance.

Why is learning about black history important?

Learning about black history is good for all students, not just African American students. It helps end racism ; it helps students and parents; it gives a full and honest view of African Americans and it helps fight xenophobic views .

What do students learn from black history?

When students are taught black history in school, they get an understanding of many different types people. In many cases, they will see similarities between African Americans and people of other races. Additionally, they will learn that there are some cultural differences between African Americans and people of other races.

Why is it important to learn about cultural differences?

It is good to learn about cultural differences because it will show that, just as siblings have differences but are still part of the same family, African Americans are part of the United States.

How does black history help children?

When children study black history in school, they and their parents are both exposed to the fact that African Americans don’t just take from the United States, but also give and give good, wonderful and necessary things. Black history teaches students and their parents by teaching them about the contributions of African Americans to the United States.

Why is it important to teach black history?

Teaching black history in schools helps students who have little or no interaction with African Americans to develop an accurate understanding of African Americans in the United States.

How does Black History teach students and their parents?

Black history teaches students and their parents by teaching them about the contributions of African Americans to the United States.

Why don't African Americans get nominated for Oscars?

It can be seen when African Americans are told that the reason they don’t get nominated for Oscars is because they don’t have the talent while ignoring the fact that they are not given the opportunity to work and their movies are not watched by those voting for the awards.

Structural Racism as A Public Health Issue

See more on smithsonianmag.com

Failed Responses to Public Health Crises

A Way Forward: Toward Dismantling Structural Racism