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B la c k H
Focus
A
Focus g ---------------- hartiani» ©bseruer
February 9, 2000
S U P P L E M E N T
istorv M
onth
for Black History
OF
'Stye
^ o rtla n b
By T o m a Bourn*
A
for Annie Allen
(Observer
Editor in Chief,
Publisher
Charles H. W ashington
Editor
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
Copy Editor
Joy Ramos
Business Manager
G ary A nn Taylor
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Submitted material: s
In 1950, G w e n d o ly n B rooks
became the first African American
to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry,
for her remarkable second book of
poems, Annie Allen. Annie Allen is
an epic cycle that describes from
within the changes in a young
w om an as she m oves from
effervescent youthful dreams of
romance, marriage, and happiness
to the concrete reality of adulthood
in the inner city circle o f Black
women.
What shall I give my children? Who
are poor.
Who are adjudged the leastwise o f
the land.
Who are my sweetest lepers, who
dem and
No velvet and no velvety velour;
But who have begged me fo r a brisk
contour,
C ry in g th a t th e y a re quasi,
contraband
Because unfinished, graven by a
hand
Less than angelic, admirable or
sure.
M y hand is stuffed with mode,
design, device.
But I lack access to my proper
stone.
And plentiful o f plan shall not suffice
Nor g rie f nor love shall be enough
alone
To ratify my little halves who bear
A c ro ss an a u tu m n fr e e z in g
everywhere.
- “Children o f the Poor,”
from Annie Allen
Carter G. Woodson is considered
the “Father o f Black History.” A
hugely important part o f W oodson’s
legacy is Negro History Week. He
launched this annual celebration in
1926 to raise people’s awareness of
black contributions to civilization.
Fifty years later, this endeavor
became Black History Month.
Woodson was able to accomplish
all that he did because it was all that
he wanted to do. Foreverabachelor,
he lived a very spartan life. In his
essay “A Portrait o f C arter G.
W o o d so n ,” W .E .B . Du B ois
remarked that Woodson “had very
little outdoor life, he had few close
friends. He cared n o thing for
baseball or football and did not play
cards, smoke or drink.” Practically
everything Woodson established or
produced was paid for out o f his
own pocket orthrough his own fund­
raising efforts. He never snuggled
up to philanthropists because he
was, as Du Bois wrote, “fiercely
determined to be master o f his own
enterprises and final judge o f what
he wanted to do and say. He pretty
soon got the reputation o f not being
the kind o f ‘trustworthy’ Negro to
whom help should be given.”
The most important thing he learned
from his studies and his teaching
G. Woodson a great man is not that
he thought these thoughts, but that
he did som ething about it: He
devoted his life to researching and
promoting the study ofblack history
and culture.
In 1915, Woodson confounded and
went on to head up the Association
for the Study o f Negro Life and
History in W ashington, D.C. (now
the Association for the Study o f
Afro-American Life and History).
The organization’s purpose was, as
Woodson put it, “the collection o f
sociological and historical data on
the Negro, the study o f peoples o f
African blood, the publishing o f
books in the field, and the promoting
o f harmony between the races by
acquainting the one with the other.’
The creation o f the association laid
the foundation for the treatment o f
black history as a serious subject.
was how much ofblack history had
been ignored and how much ot what
had been recorded was fallacious.
He got hot and bothered about this
d is to rtio n and n e g le c t. He
understood that know ledge was
power, understood that the less
blacks knew o f their history, the
weaker they would be; and early on,
he held out a hope that if white
people were more enlightened on
the subject, they would not regard
blacks as inferior. What made Carter
f
t
lU ^uying Black
In 1926, scholar and author Carter
G. Woodson established Negro
H istory Week to highlight African
A m erican co n tributions to the
United States. What was once a
week's recognition has blossomed
into a fu ll month, celebrated in
February, in order to include the
birthdays o f the great antislavery
activist Frederick Douglass and o f
President Abraham Lincoln.
Movement
B y _ £ l a lp A nderson
In the 1920s and 1930s, blacks
began to leave the South for better
jobs and what they hoped would be
improved racial conditions in the
North. They most often moved to
large metropolitan areas with heavy
industrial development. As northern
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I'H » The Portland O b k rv tf
Special thanks to the
publishing company of
John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. for their research
support and permission
to reprint information
from their books Sister
Days, The QBR 100
Essential Black Books,
African American Desk
Reference, Strong Men
Keep Coming and The
Black New Yorkers.
y
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liik lr o n ix
ju s tm *
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