Black History From the Year You Were Born
By
Niesha Davis, Stacker News
On 2/9/21 at 6:30 PM EST
Each February, Black History Month is dedicated to celebrating the achievements, and reflecting on the experiences, of African Americans. What began as a week in 1926 has blossomed into 28 days of remembrance and lessons on the contributions of Black Americans.
Many Black Americans come from a lineage of captured and enslaved people who were forcibly brought to the U.S. to build the culture and infrastructure of a place in which they never asked to live. Forced immigration and centuries of cultural genocide have driven Black Americans to literally and figuratively rebuild a culture from the ground up. In the face of historical oppression and inequality—slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the police violence that spawned the #BlackLivesMatter movement—African Americans have continuously fought for their rights and spawned countless milestones, achievements, and freedoms. While being forced to exist largely on the fringes of society, Black Americans nevertheless have made many significant contributions to the arts, education, politics, technology, and numerous other fields.