InfoGuides: Summer Staycation with Central Piedmont Library: Black History Month 2020

Voting Rights for African Americans

Black History Month Background

Black History Month begins with Carter G. Woodson. Woodson traveled to Chicago in the summer of 1915 to participate in the three-week celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation. Woodson joined the exhibitors with a display on black history. Thousands of African-Americans came from across the country and the venue overflowed with people waiting to see the exhibits.

Inspired by the celebration, Woodson and four others founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). The Association was committed to studying the life, history, and accomplishments of the African diaspora that was underrepresented in American academia.

After years of research and outreach, the organization announced the first Negro History Week in February 1926 to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas (February 12th and February 14th). In conjunction with the celebration of those birthdays, schools and communities nationwide organized history clubs as well as hosting events highlighting African-American history and culture.

Negro History Week gained in popularity over the decades and with the rise of Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, the week began to evolve into a month long celebration. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month on the fiftieth anniversary of Negro History Week and the United States Bicentennial. All American were urged to “seize the opportunity to honor the oft-neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Carter G. Woodson died on April 3, 1950 in Washington, D.C. Woodson believed that black history was too important to America and the world to be taught in a limited time frame and should be taught all year long.

Black History Month has been observed outside the United States in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.

Black History Month - Facts and Trivia

Ten Little Known Black History Facts
Just as Black history is more than a month, so too are the numerous events and figures that are often overlooked during it. What follows is a list of some of those “lesser known” moments and facts in Black history.
Black History Facts
Black History Month honors the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history. Did you know that Madam C.J. Walker was America’s first woman to become a self-made millionaire, or that George Washington Carver was able to derive nearly 300 products from the peanut? Get the story of the creation of the NAACP, famous firsts in African American history and other black history facts.

Black History Month - Books

Legacy: Treasures of Black History by Donna Wells (Editor); Moorland Spingarn Research Center (Contribution by); John Hope Franklin (Preface by); Thomas C. Battle
Legacy represents a major new contribution to African-American history. The Black experience and its impact on our nation's culture and character come alive in twelve chapters that sweep from ancient Africa and the slave trade to such key eras as the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction; the Harlem Renaissance and the Jim Crow Era; and the modern Civil Rights and Black Power/Black Arts movements.
The African American Experience by Kai Wright (Editor)
This wide-ranging archive, capturing more than four centuries of African American history and culture in one essential volume, is at once poignant, painful, celebratory, and inspiring.The African American Experience is a one-of-a-kind and absolutely riveting collection of more than 300 letters, speeches, articles, petitions, poems, songs, and works of fiction tracing the course of black history in America from the first slaves brought over in the 16th century to the events of the present day.
Dream a World Anew by Nat'l Museum Nat'l Museum AFR AM Hist/Cult (Editor); Barack Obama (Foreword by); Kinshasha Holman Conwill (Editor)
ISBN: 1588345688
Dream A World Anew is the stunning book accompanying the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It combines informative narratives from leading scholars, curators, and authors with objects from the museum's collection to present a thorough exploration of African American history and culture.

Black History Month - Videos

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
Written and presented by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, this six-hour PBS series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed -- forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds.
Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise
This PBS series looks at the last five decades of African American history through the eyes of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., exploring the tremendous gains and persistent challenges of these years. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, scholarly analysis and rare archival footage, the series illuminates our recent past, while raising urgent questions about the future of the African American community—and our nation as a whole.
Swank Digital Campus - Black History Month
Swank Digital Campus offers streaming access to the best Black History Month films with relevant new releases like Harriet and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and all-time favorites like Do the Right Thing and Moonlight. Instructors can request films be added to CP's Swank Portal. Please see this guide for instructions: https://researchguides.cpcc.edu/swank

Voting Rights Amendments

15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote.
Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century.
Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

19th Amendment

A women's suffrage amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878.
Forty-one years later, on June 4, 1919, Congress approved the women’s suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification.
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote and was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920.

24th Amendment

The twenty-fourth amendment prohibited federal and state governments from imposing poll taxes before a citizen could participate in a federal election.
It was passed by the U.S. Congress on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.
The twenty-fourth amendment was adopted as a response to policies adopted in various Southern states after the ending of post-Civil War Reconstruction to limit the political participation of African Americans.

Black History Month - Websites

African American History Month
February is African American History Month The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) _ 2020 Theme
The year 2020 marks the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment and the culmination of the women’s suffrage movement. The year 2020 also marks the sesquicentennial of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and the right of black men to the ballot after the Civil War.
National African-American (Black) History Month
These facts are made possible by the invaluable responses to the U.S. Census Bureau’s surveys.

Summer Staycation with Central Piedmont Library: Black History Month 2020

Black History Month 2020

Voting Rights for African Americans

Black History Month Background

Carter G. Woodson died on April 3, 1950 in Washington, D.C. Woodson believed that black history was too important to America and the world to be taught in a limited time frame and should be taught all year long.

Black History Month has been observed outside the United States in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.

Black History Month - Facts and Trivia

Black History Month - Books

Black History Month - Videos

Voting Rights Amendments

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote.

Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century.

Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

A women's suffrage amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878.

Forty-one years later, on June 4, 1919, Congress approved the women’s suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification.

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote and was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920.

The twenty-fourth amendment prohibited federal and state governments from imposing poll taxes before a citizen could participate in a federal election.

It was passed by the U.S. Congress on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.

The twenty-fourth amendment was adopted as a response to policies adopted in various Southern states after the ending of post-Civil War Reconstruction to limit the political participation of African Americans.

Black History Month - Websites