This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Nottingham chapter.

In October, the UK commemorates Black History Month. Events are taking place nationwide in order to raise awareness of black history, celebrate black writers, artists, sportsmen and other icons, and encourage us to look back on the too-often neglected accomplishments of the black community. As Her Campus celebrate Black History Month, we take a look at where it all began.

Where did it start?

Black History Month has been celebrated in the UK since 1987 and the US since 1976, but the event’s history goes back a further 50 years. In 1926, African-American Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves, began Negro History Week in the US. The first week of February was chosen because it coincided with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln (responsible for the Emancipation Proclamation) and Francis Douglass (leader of the abolitionist movement).

Woodson felt it was essential for American public schools to teach the history of black Americans. ‘If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.’ This was a huge step for Woodson to take in an America where white–black segregation was still unrelenting – it was another 30 years until Rosa Parks would strike controversy by refusing to move from the ‘white section’ of the bus. In 1969, Kent State University argued that Negro History Week should be expanded to fill a whole month. Thus in 1976: Black History Month.

This Year…

This year’s Black History Month marks some significant anniversaries for the black community. With the 20 year anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa (and the first Black History Month to take place following the death of Nelson Mandela) the UK will remember the prejudice that the black community was forced to endure by whites. And with the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of World War One, we recognise the under-acknowledged truth that thousands of black Britons and colonials from Britain’s colonies rushed to Britain’s aid against Germany.

Debates Arise…

Questions are asked every year about Black History Month’s continuing relevance. Is it right that the history of an entire race should be shunted into a single month each year? Morgan Freeman notoriously said in 2005 ‘I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.’ He went on to stress that the only way to stop racism is to ‘stop talking about it’.

On the other hand, Nadra Kareem Nittle argues that Black History Month should remain at the forefront of our minds until history books look on blacks and whites equally. ‘It works in exactly the same way as Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October or Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in June […] Black History Month’s goal is to raise awareness.’

Check out what’s occurring in Nottingham for Black History Month!

· Screening of ‘12 Years a Slave’ – Tuesday 14th October, 5.30pm at the Screening room, Hallward Library, University Park. Free!

· Malcolm X in Britain: Race, immigration and the transatlantic civil rights movement – Tuesday 28th October, 6pm at the New Art Exchange.

· Steel Drum Band – Tuesday 14th October, 12-2pm at Café Remedy of the Medical school

· Remembering Rosa Parks – Thursday 9th October, 1pm at Studio 7, UoN King’s Meadow Campus

· Salsa Demonstration – Tuesday 7th October, 12-2pm at the Medical School foyer

· Soul Professor, motown, TSOP, Stax, Muscle Shoals, jazz funk, Northern Soul, R&B, 60s to present – Thursday 2nd October, 7.30pm at UoN Sports and Social Club

· Belly Dancing – Thursday 23rd October, 12-2pm at the Medical School foyer

For more details and further events, click here.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/blackhistorymonth/2014/09/24/amazing-events-for-black-history-month-2014/?utm_source=UoN+homepage&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=Black+History+Month+2014

http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/

http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/IsBlackHistoryMonthRelevant_2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States

http://www.thejournal.ie/black-history-month-ireland-1703855-Oct2014/

http://www.legalspeaks.com/2014/02/why-we-still-need-black-history-month/

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/flashback-morgan-freeman-ending-racism-stop-talking-about-it