What Celebrating Black History Month Can Teach Us About Resistance and Building Community During the Trump Years

This year, Black History Month means more than ever. 

Trump's first two weeks in office have been positively destabilizing. Executive order after executive order. Violation of law after violation of law. Unhinged rant after unhinged rant. Where will it end? Overwhelming anxiety and fear have started to set in. People are beginning to feel hopeless. I see too many people on social media throwing up their hands in defeat and declaring that all has already been lost.

But if Black history has taught us anything, it's how to resist oppression in the darkest times and build community against all odds. That's why this year, Black History Month means more than ever! We need to stiffen our spines for the road ahead because giving up now would dishonor everything that our ancestors taught us.

A few days ago, the news broke that certain government departments were cancelling celebrations of Black History Month and other diversity-related holidays in order to comply with Trump's "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing" executive order. Government agencies will do what they have to do to comply with the law, but let's be clear, Trump can never "cancel" Black History Month. It doesn't need his federal recognition or his funding. Black History Month is, and always has been, a community education movement. Let me tell you what I mean by that...

The Story of Black History Month

In the early 20th century, a man named Carter G. Woodson launched one of the most impactful community education movements in American history. We celebrate the movement Woodson started every year as Black History Month. Woodson was one of America’s earliest Black educators. He got so frustrated by the lack of information about Black history and accomplishments being taught in America’s schools (especially Black schools) that he decided to take action.

Woodson didn’t have the power to change what schools were teaching, so he found another way. He established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and published the first Journal of Negro History in 1916. Then he hired a small team of salesmen to travel around the country selling subscriptions and spreading the word about Black history like early Avon or Mary Kay.

In 1922, Woodson launched the first "Negro History Week" celebration to generate more support for his efforts and focus attention on the history and accomplishments of Black people. Fifty years later, students at Kent State University became the first to expand it to a month-long celebration. After more than a decade of traveling around the country to spread the gospel of Black history, Woodson summarized his ideas and experiences in a phenomenal book called The Miseducation of the Negro in 1933. So you see, the very existence of Black History Month is itself an act of defiance. Woodson defied America's public schools by educating his community about the things they refused to teach.

I taught African American Studies at the College of Charleston for six years, and let me tell you, Black history is FILLED with amazing stories like Woodson's! Black history has so many important lessons to teach us about resisting and building community during difficult times. Take a break from the news, and listen to a few stories that will inspire you and encourage you to keeping working toward a brighter future. You may think you already know about Black history, but you've never heard it like this!

Lessons From Black History