Black History Celebration and Theme with Friends of Dean Park, Inc.

Carter G. Woodson

Carter G. Woodson

founder of Black History Month

Black History Month is the annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. It is the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Woodson believed that his role was to use black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift.

February is Black History Month and the 2020 National Theme for is "African Americans and the Vote," according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The theme highlights the sesquicentennial (150 years) and centennial (100 years) of the fifteenth and nineteenth amendment. The theme will highlight suffrage of Blacks throughout American history. Blacks have been denied the right to vote by various means, e.g., poll taxes, memorizing the constitution, criminal records, property ownership, Voters ID and today there are conniving methods that are more sophisticated. Voter suppression is widely spread in the United States today as a method of denying the right to vote to Blacks and some others.

In 1870, non-white men and freed male slaves are guaranteed the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era began soon afterwards. Southern states suppressed the voting rights of black and poor white voters through Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. They were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries after the Reconstruction period. Jim Crow was enforced until 1965 with the Voters Right Act. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

The Friends of Dean Park, Inc. is sponsoring a Black History Exhibit at the Winston County Library 301 Park Street, Louisville, MS, throughout the month starting February 5th. Elder Sylvester Miller and Lee’s Restaurant will be honored. The Reception will be Saturday, February 22, 2020, 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon. Rosa Sanders will be there signing her newly published book. We have a special guest speaker to be announced later.

Submitted by: Elmetra Patterson