Raquel Duron, Editor in Chief
Black History Month is an annual, month-long celebration highlighting the mark that black people have made on U.S history through their struggles for freedom and equality.
Otherwise known as African American History Month, the celebration evolved from past week long celebrations, the creation of Carter G. Woodson and other eminent African Americans. Harvard educated historian Carter Woodson and minister Jesse Moorland created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization focusing on researching and celebrating accomplishments by black Americans and other people of African descent.
February is a significant time for black history. It marks the birth month of two figures who shaped society and the everyday treatment of black people living in America: sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln [February 12], who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and African American abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass [February 14].
Member of Black Student Union and Student Achievement, Kayliah Farquharson mentioned plans that bring Black History Month festivities to our campus, “Next week, it’s Black History Week and Kindness Matters Week in one. We are going to have spirit days and lunchtime activities filled with self-expression and love. That’s what kindness is and that’s what we like to represent in our community.”
At Rancho Cucamonga High School, along with celebrating Black History Month all month long, one week is typically reserved for Kindness Matters Week. The week focuses on spreading kindness to everyone —- regardless of race.
This year, ASB and Student Achievement are collaborating with Black Student Union to develop a Kindness Matters/Black History Week. The week consists of spirit days encouraging students to wear Kobe Bryant attire, celebrating the life and accomplishments of a black athlete, to college attire from historically black colleges and universities.
Farquharson looked forward to the upcoming week, “This is the first time that it’s actually happened. We weren’t really planning it but it works well together. The two concepts. Black people and kindness.”
In 1975, President Gerald Ford released a Message on the Observance of Black History Week encouraging Americans to “recognize the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by black citizens.” Since 1976, all U.S. presidents have declared the month of February as Black History Month.
The racial progress America has made is undeniable, but Black History Month is still crucial in today’s society. We have to recognize that Black History Month persists in order to attempt to do what federal legislation has failed to do — to eliminate a systematic inequality that disables so many black people in America.
Martin Luther King Jr. furthers this idea, “It may be true that law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.” This is why Black History Month is essential.
The Cat's Eye 