Speaking of Life
Deliverance From Oppression
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See our article about Black History Month here.
We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born in 1875 in Buckingham County, Virginia, Woodson spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coalmines. He entered high school at the age of 20 and taught elementary school for two years after his graduation. He later studied at Berea College, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University, receiving a Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 1912. He was dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University from 1919 to 1920 and of West Virginia Institute (now West Virginia State College) from 1920 to 1922.
As Woodson studied, he couldn’t help but see the dearth of information in American history on the accomplishments of blacks. So he decided to take on the challenge of giving black Americans their rightful place in the nation's history. In 1915, he established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and a year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history.
Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. February was a good choice for other reasons as well.
W.E.B. DuBois, an important civil rights leader
and co-founder of the NAACP was born in February, 1868:
The 15th Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote, was passed
in February 1870 and the first black U.S. senator, Hiram R. Revels, took his
oath of office the same month.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by a group of concerned black and white citizens in New York City in February 1909.
And, in what would become a civil rights movement milestone, a group of black Greensboro, N.C., college students began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in February 1960.
Although blacks have been in America at least as far back as colonial times, it was not until the 20th century that they gained a respectable presence in the history books, thanks to the courage and hard work of leaders like Carter G. Woodson.
In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus read from the book of Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV).
These words of the prophet Isaiah foretold the ministry of Jesus, and they continue to ring true as faithful Christians commit themselves to letting Jesus live in them to further deliverance and hope to the oppressed.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.
