Black History Month is celebrated in the United States and Canada each February. Black History Month traces its origins to Negro History Week which was first created in 1926 with the week chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12th) and Frederick Douglass (February 14th). An annual monthlong celebration of black history was later proposed by students and educators at Kent State University in 1969, and adopted one year later. By the mid-1970s, Black History Month was celebrated across the United States and officially recognized by US President Gerald Ford in 1976. Originally intended to celebrate black history and culture in the United States, Black History Month has since spread to Canada, as well as the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands, where it is celebrated in October.
Tag: Black History
15th Amendment Ratified (1870): Granted Black Male the Right to Vote
#OnThisDay in 1870, the 15th Amendment, which granted black men the right to vote, was ratified. Unfortunately, Southern states continued to disenfranchise black voters through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, threats of physical harm, etc. Therefore, the promise of the 15th Amendment was not fully realized until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965–almost a century later.
The amendment was passed (proposed) by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870.
Learn more:
— National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27
— LOC: http://www.loc.gov/rr//program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html
— Teaching resources: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/voting-rights-african-americans.html
