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Black History month dates to 1926 when a black historian deemed the second week of February to be “Negro History Week.” The date usually coincided with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Thurgood Marshall, two dates the black community typically celebrated. Black History Month was first celebrated in 1970 by the staff and campus of Kent State University, and President Gerald Ford officially recognized it in 1976 during the United States Bicentennial Celebration.
Celebrating Black History Month is significant for all Arkansans. It helps us learn about the past and use our understanding to change the future. As the mom of a young child, I’m always looking for ways to use experiences to help us learn and open my kid’s eyes to things I never knew at his age.
Here are some practical ways to focus on celebrating and exploring Black History month intentionally this year.
How can you celebrate Black History Month in Arkansas?
1. Visit a historically significant site to the African-American culture in Arkansas.
2. Complete the Civil Rights Trail locations in Arkansas or download the audio tour experience.
3. Visit Little Rock and be intentional about stopping to see the Testament statue on the grounds of the State Capitol. Get out and walk around. Look into their faces and stand behind them, facing the capital to imagine the group of teenagers taking a stand for something they know to be correct.
4. Visit the Central High School National Historic Site and complete the outdoor walking tour.
5. Tour the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock or the Smith Museum of African American History in El Dorado.
6. Watch The Green Book, Loving, Selma, Remember the Titans, The Tuskegee Airmen, HBO’s The Watchmen, 42 or Harriet and feel the feels and dig into the questions they bring to your heart.
7. Buy a book by a Black author.
8. Read a poem by Maya Angelou, like “A Pledge to Rescue our Youth.” Angelou grew up in Stamps, AR, and the group Celebrate! Maya Project has committed to keeping her messages alive.
9. Learn about members of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and their contributions to our world.
10. Learn about many firsts of African Americans from Arkansas
11. Support black-owned businesses.
12. Search for murals with historical significance in towns like Hot Springs, Fort Smith or Arkadelphia.
13. Walk through a cemetery and reflect on the people and the significance of their lives. Great options include the memorial of Rev. George Berry Washington, Scott Bond Family plot, Haven of Rest and Union Cemetery in Little Rock, Pioneer Cemetery in Washington, Oakland and Fraternal Historical Park, or Ida Bell AME Church Cemetery.
14. Listen to music by black musicians, some from Arkansas include Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Scott Joplin, Alfonzo Trent, Al Green, Louis Jordan, Al Hibbler, William Grant Still, Luther Allen, Cedell Davis or Sonny Boy Williamson.
15. Commit to doing something different this year – adjust a mindset, hold a conversation, read more books, patron businesses.
Learn more about Black History and Arkansas:
- 3 Black Arkansans who pioneered their fields
- Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Arkansas
- Dr. O. Keith Baker: pioneering physicist
- The State’s Oldest Known recording of an African American sporting event
- The story of Charles E. Bussey, Jr.
- Rose Marie McCoy – a musical prodigy you’ve probably never heard of
- Dorothy McFadden Hoover – mathematician and NASA programmer
- John Donley: renowned sitcom writer and producer
- 60th Anniversary of the Little Rock Nine
- Silas A Hunt, first African American student to enroll at UofA grad school
- Daisy Bates, a mentor to the Little Rock Nine
- Black Business Leaders Making a Difference
- Frederick Douglass and the Freedman’s Savings & Trust
- The First Twenty-Five – Little Rock’s first African American public Junior High students
- Color in Space: The art of Justin Bryant
- Arkansas Poets You Should Know
- 6 Black Arkansas Performers to Know
- The Arkansongs Perspective: Trailblazers in Music
- Arkansas Delta Blues Singers
- The Story of Al Bell, a pioneer in soul music
- Establishing the Pankey Settlement
- Charolette Tidwell changes Fort Smith through the Antioch Community Center
- Slick Surrat and African American Baseball history
- Floyd “Jelly” Gardner
- Harding honors African American Alumni
- More Black History Firsts
- Senator Irma Hunter Brown
- Arkansas Black Hall of Fame
- Juneteenth in Arkansas
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