Shaker Library Celebrates Black History Month

“There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.”
—Carter G. Woodson.

Carter G. Woodson created “Negro History Week” in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. Woodson was a scholar and historian and the second black American to receive a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. Woodson chose the second week in February to bring awareness to African Americans’ role in shaping U.S. history, as that week also commemorated the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

February is also a month of other historical importance, such as the birth of civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois on February 23 and the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which gave black people the right to vote on February 3, 1870. In 1976, President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance.

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the contributions that African Americans have made to our country. It is a celebration for all of us—black and white. It is important to know our past to help inform us of a better future.

Last Saturday and Sunday, Shaker Library celebrated Black History Month with productions directed by Moreland resident Monica Boone and performed by Shaker area neighbors.

The Library’s Black History Month observance continues this week. On Thursday, February 13, at 7 pm at Main Library, prolific author and Princeton University graduate, Tonya Bolden, will speak on the topic, We Are Not Yet Equal: History and Our Racial Divide. Sunday, February 16 from 2:30-4 pm at Main Library, Dr. Donna M. Whyte will present Before Busing: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Cleveland Public Schools. Dr. Whyte will share this history from both a scholarly and personal perspective. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many African-American children attended half-day relay classes in overcrowded east side Cleveland schools while in nearby predominantly white schools, classrooms sat empty. In protest 92% of black Cleveland Public School students boycotted the schools in 1964. Dr. Donna McIntyre Whyte, a Moreland resident, was among them.

In honor of Black History Month, Shaker Library has created a webpage of events along with a suggested reading list.