Saturday, February 15, 2025

Mitchell: Celebrate Black History Month

As we turn the calendar page to February, we see the celebration of Black History across our nation as a reminder of African Americans’ many accomplishments and contributions. Their ingenuity, courage, strength, and creative spirit continue to inspire us today.

Black History Month, recognized every February in the United States, was started by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard scholar, in 1926. Today, he is known as the Father of Black History.

At the inception of Black History Week, the second week of February was chosen because it coincided with the birthdays of President Lincoln, who freed enslaved people with the Emancipation Proclamation, and Fredrick Douglass, a formerly enslaved person who became a scholar and activist.

Fifty years after Black History Week began, President Ford officially declared February as Black History Month in 1976. Denton County honors this holiday with office closures observed on Monday, February 17.

Celebrate Black History Month daily with 28 firsts from the African-American community:

1. 1773 – Poet Phillis Wheatley publishes a book of poems.
2. 1777 – Vermont becomes the first state to ban slavery.
3. 1870 – Hiram Revels becomes a U.S. Senator.
4. 1878 – Marie Selika Williams sings at the White House.
5. 1893 – Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful heart surgery.
6. 1904 – George Poage wins an Olympic medal.
7. 1905 – Robert S. Abbott founds the Chicago Defender newspaper.
8. 1921 – Bessie Coleman earns a pilot’s license.
9. 1939 – Jane Bolin is named the first woman judge.
10. 1940 – Hattie McDaniel wins an Oscar.
11. 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
12. 1948 – Gordon Parks is named a photographer at Life Magazine.
13. 1948 – Alice Coachman wins a gold medal in the Olympics for the high jump.
14. 1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks wins a Pulitzer Prize.
15. 1955 – Claudette Colvin, a teenager, refuses to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, AL, on March 2nd, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, AL, on December 1st.
16. 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is appointed as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
17. 1968 – Shirley Chisholm is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
18. 1969 – The U.S. puts the first man on the moon with calculations by Katherine Johnson.
19. 1981 – Dr. Alexa Irene Canady becomes the first woman Neurosurgeon in the U.S.
20. 1982 – Bryant Gumbel begins hosting The Today Show on NBC.
21. 1987 – Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
22. 1992 – Mae Jemison goes into space.
23. 2001 – Colin Powell becomes the U.S. Secretary of State.
24. 2005 – Condoleezza Rice serves as the U.S. Secretary of State.
25. 2008 – Barack Obama is elected President.
26. 2012 – Gabby Douglas wins the all-around gold medal in gymnastics at the London Olympics.
27. 2020 – Kamala Harris is elected Vice President.
28. 2021 – Juneteenth is declared a federal holiday.

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