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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Black History Month, some sports history This essay "Carter G. Woodson, Black History Month, and Some Sports History" was first published 5 February 2006 in the Hart County News-Herald. To see other articles by this author, enter "Rev. Joey N. Welsh," or "Another Angle," in the searchbox. The next earlier essay posted on ColumbiaMagazine.com is From The Mouth Of Satchel Paige By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh Carter G. Woodson, Black History Month, and Some Sports History Celebrating February as Black History Month is an outgrowth of an observance instituted in 1926, 80 years ago, by Professor Carter G. Woodson. Woodson (1875-1950) was a historian; his parents were former slaves living in rural Virginia when they started their family. They had moved to West Virginia because the segregated schools there offered more educational opportunities for non-whites than Virginia, where there was little attempt to provide much public education beyond grade school. Woodson worked as a coal miner, completed high school there, and went to Berea College in Kentucky for his undergraduate degree. At the close of the 19th century Berea was one of the few colleges in the region that welcomed non-white students. Woodson later received his M. A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph. D. from Harvard. During his life he taught, published pioneering works on African-American history, and established the leading journal in that area of study. His 1926 observance of African-American heritage ran for one week in February. Woodson chose that time of year because it held the birthdays of poet and writer Langston Hughes (February 1), President Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation (February 12), and abolitionist and reformer Frederick Douglass (February 14). In our own day there is recurring controversy about the necessity of preserving a special time of year to highlight African-American history. Woodson himself hoped for a day when the history of all peoples would be appreciated to such an extent that any such annual celebration would become unnecessary. In a December, 2005 interview on 60 Minutes, actor Morgan Freeman spoke of his impatience about people observing Black History Month separately from the rest of American History. As for me, I see value in continuing Professor Woodson's original idea. I do not believe that we have reached the time when very many of us see the history of all Americans as our history. Woodson's hope that reality would make his celebration obsolete is yet unfulfilled. The new popular movie, Glory Road, reminds us that in many areas of life, including sports, Americans have had a tough time working toward racial harmony. A compressed and fictionalized version of real sports history, the movie tells of the triumph of Texas Western University in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship forty years ago. The championship game had marked the first time that an all-black starting lineup had taken the floor for the title, that year against the favored all-white Rupp's Runts of the University of Kentucky. That game did mark some kind of turning point in college sports, but it was not an event without its own context of gradually-changing attitudes. Coach Don Haskins had come to Texas Western in 1961 to a team that had already been racially integrated, and during the years that Texas Western worked toward the 1966 championship other integrated teams had won the title. (Cincinnati won the 1961 title with three African-American starters and again in 1962 with four; Loyola of Chicago won in 1963 with four African-American starters.) Still, the 1966 championship game did shock the white establishment in the South, startling the SEC college power brokers from their segregationist slumber. The times were changing, and that 1966 championship was a herald of the new reality. Some history unfolds on battlefields, some is created by political leaders in the corridors of power, while other history in born on football fields and basketball courts. I don't know if Dr. Carter Woodson was a sports fan, but he surely would have enjoyed 1966. E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2010-01-31 02:51:27
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Sound advice to inventors of Sled to Beat All Sleds Trail cam use is observing nature in its purest form Rev. Joey N. Welsh: From The Mouth Of Satchel Paige Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Can we get along here? Dream of Coming to Adair Co., KY began Aug. 3, 1998 with first land purchase Old Coddger doesn't want gumment involved in paint schemes Rev. Joey N. Welsh: To Take A Licking, And Keep On Ticking Utilities merger: Writer says, Get it done. Rev. Joey N. Welsh No. 051: Christmas isn't over yet Trucker urges slower drivers to remember to keep right View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
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