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.
Photo
In 1839, Robert Smalls was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. As a slave, he worked in the Charleston shipyards. After learning the local harbor and surrounding waters, 23-year-old Robert...
Photo
Ruby still lives in New Orleans. She runs the Ruby Bridges Foundation to help troubled children at William Frantz and other schools. With the group, Ruby travels the country advocating the importance...
Photo
Ruby's friend, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Coles, wrote "The Story of Ruby Bridges." At William Frantz, Ruby attended an empty classroom. Some parents refused to let their children go to the integrated...
Lesson
Design and play unique, student-made versions of traditional Gullah musical instruments.
Photo
By the time Ruby was six years old, there were new laws stating that African American and white students had to integrate, or share, schools. People such as Martin Luther King, Jr. had worked for...
Lesson
When enslaved Africans came to the coast of South Carolina they brought many foods with them that have become traditional Southern favorites. They include peanuts, sweet potatoes, okra, black-eyed...
Photo
Ruby was born in 1954. At the time, African-American children and white children had to attend separate schools. Segregation, or the separation of African American and white people, was practiced by...
Photo
Ruby Bridges' first day at William Frantz Elementary School was very unusual. Integration, or the sharing of schools by African American and white people, had recently become law in 1960. She was one...
Photo
Dr. King's efforts would lead to wider recognition of equal rights, education and political representation for African Americans and other minorities. For his work, he earned a Nobel Peace Prize in...
Photo
Dr. King traveled around the world giving speeches and organizing peaceful protests. He met with presidents to urge support for civil rights. His "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered in Washington, D...
