Summary of The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

Overview of Code Switch — "The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in"

This episode of NPR’s Code Switch (hosts B.A. Parker and Jean Demby) marks the 100th anniversary of Negro History Week/Black History Month. It features Jarvis Givens, Harvard professor and author of I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month (released Feb 3), who traces the origins, evolution, purposes, and contemporary stakes of Black History Month and argues for a richer, more activist practice of preserving and teaching Black history.

Key points / main takeaways

• Black History Month began as Negro History Week in 1926, created by historian and journalist Carter G. Woodson, and was expanded to a month in 1976 (U.S. bicentennial year).
• The original intent was corrective and civic: to give truthful, empowering representations of Black people and to cultivate historical literacy that could critique injustice.
• Over time, celebrations have often been reduced to sanitized trivia — “famous firsts,” dates, and uplifting portraits — losing much of the critical, communal, and political edge of the early work.
• “Black memory work” — the labor of preserving and interpreting Black history — has been done by teachers, archivists, writers, grassroots organizers, and everyday people, not just elite academics.
• Black history has long been surveilled and censored (textbooks confiscated, materials banned), and today faces renewed attacks and erasures.
• The centennial provides an opportunity to resist narrow or celebratory-only narratives and expand public engagement with rigorous preservation, local archives, and community-driven memory work.

Guest and context

• Jarvis Givens — professor of education and African and African American studies at Harvard; from Compton, California.
• Author of I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month (published Feb 3).
• Draws on archival letters, classroom histories, teacher writings and local memory to reframe the month’s purpose.

Origins and evolution (brief)

• Precursor: commemorations like Frederick Douglass Day.
• 1926: Carter G. Woodson launches Negro History Week to correct omissions in public history and classrooms.
• 1976: Expanded to Black History Month amid the U.S. bicentennial, as a pushback to narratives of American exceptionalism and as a demand for public accountability.
• Today: A mix of meaningful critical work and corporatized or superficial observances.

Black memory work — what it is and examples

• Definition: The collective labor of preserving, curating, teaching, and circulating Black histories — performed by teachers, librarians, archivists, community members, artists, and students.
• Historic examples:
  • Black teachers writing corrective textbooks as early as the 1840s (e.g., James W. C. Pennington).
  • Early 20th-century teachers (e.g., Lila Amos Pendleton) emphasizing resistance histories omitted elsewhere.
  • Local teacher letters and church-school records (e.g., Mary Ross-Jones) documenting everyday life and constraints.
• Contemporary example: High school students forming local literary societies and archives to preserve community stories.

Surveillance, censorship, and erasure

• Long history of suppressing Black texts and teaching: confiscated textbooks, anti-literacy laws, bans on abolitionist and resistance literature (e.g., David Walker, Frederick Douglass).
• 1925 Afro-American article: “Dr. Woodson’s Negro History Confiscated” — local school board removed Woodson’s textbook for frank coverage of racial violence and resistance.
• Modern parallels: removal or sanitization of enslaved people’s names from public displays and ongoing legislative/cultural attacks on how race and history are taught.

Why the month matters (beyond trivia)

• Woodson and early Black educators intended the observance to develop “mature historical consciousness,” enabling critical analysis of present injustices.
• Studying everyday Black life (schools, churches, funerals, labor) provides richer context for understanding famous figures and events.
• Black history is tied to life-and-death stakes (Givens connects teaching Black history to contesting devaluation of Black lives).

Notable quotes & insights

• Carter G. Woodson: “There would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.” (Used to emphasize how school narratives shape social treatment.)
• Jarvis Givens: Black history should move beyond sanitized or celebratory forms to preserve agency, nuance, and the labor of memory workers.
• Everyday archive value: family photo albums, teacher letters, and local records matter as much as canonical texts for reconstructing history.

Practical recommendations / action items

• For educators: Move beyond lists of names/dates; teach social history, context, and the processes of historical production (archives, bias, silences).
• For communities: Preserve local documents, photos, oral histories; see preservation as active civic work.
• For parents/students: Involve young people in memory work — archives, local history projects, oral interviews — to build historical literacy.
• For institutions: Support Black archivists, teachers, and scholars; resist censorship and defend comprehensive curricula.
• During Black History Month: Combine celebration (culture, music, food) with preservation, study, and critical engagement.

Further reading / resources mentioned

• Jarvis Givens, I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month (Feb 3 release).
• Carter G. Woodson, The Negro in Our History (textbook referenced).
• Examples of archival and community projects (students’ Black Literary Society, local school archives).

This episode frames the centennial as both a celebration and a call to action: to reclaim Black History Month as a sustained, rigorous, community-centered practice of memory, preservation, and public critique rather than a month of safe trivia.