Black History Month is celebrated every February to honor the achievements of African Americans who have shaped American history. Historian Carter G. Woodson hoped to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization by establishing Negro History Week. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that included both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays. The week was later expanded to a month in 1976 during the United States bicentennial.
PHOTO: On March 20, 1969, Black hospital workers at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston went on strike to protest the firing of twelve employees and to call for higher wages and union recognition.
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The question of "the peculiar institution" known as slavery had been hotly debated long before the American Civil War. This video outlines the reasons the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S...
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Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the United States - Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, the country's greatest moral, cultural, constitutional, and political crisis. He succeeded...
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The 13 th Amendment The 14 th Amendment The 15 th Amendment The Founding Fathers Three Fifths Compromise Eli Whitney – Inventor of the “Cotton Gin” Diagram of a “Cotton Gin” Pros and Cons of Slavery...
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“14th Amendment.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute. Accessed 28 April 2021. www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv. American Experience: Reconstruction: The Second Civil...
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The Penn Center, founded officially as the Penn School in 1865, is a campus of buildings dedicated to African American education in St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The original school grew out of...
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Leo Franklin Twiggs (born 1934 in St. Stephen, South Carolina) is an American batik artist. He taught from 1973 until 1998 at South Carolina State University. He was the first visual artist to receive...
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Elizabeth Evelyn Wright was born April 3, 1872 in Talbotton, Georgia. While being educated, she learned about Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and Booker T. Washington. In 1888, Wright...
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Penn Center is one of the most significant African American historical and cultural institutions in existence today. The historic campus is located on St. Helena Island, one of the most beautiful and...
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After becoming Penn Community Center in 1953, the institution began to focus on social issues affecting the well-being of the native islanders. This expanded to African Americans as a whole in the...
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After viewing the video clip, have students use this handout to learn more. Students can research articles about the debate to remove the Confederate flag. Explain the arguments made from each side...
