By By BRIANNA WOLVERTON
Eighth grade students at Central Middle School in Dowagiac are working on a Black History Month project.
They, along with our principal, Mr. Frazier, feel it's very important for students to learn about black history.
They are trying to teach what's not taught in the history books.
We chose a project that we felt familiar with and we brought it together for one school-wide project.
Americans have recognized black history since 1926, first known as "Negro History Week," and later as "Black History Month."
Black history had barely begun to be studied when the tradition originated.
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.
We owe the celebration of Black History Month to Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
The scholar was disturbed to find in studies that history books ignored the black American population.
When blacks did get figured into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time.
Woodson, always one to act on his ambitions, decided to take on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history.
His motto was "never too late to learn," which he followed to pursue his dream of black history.
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) in 1915, and a year later founded The Journal of Negro History.
In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people.
Negro History Week went under many name changes -- Afro-American History, African-American History and, finally, Black 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.
Negro History Week became a month in 1976.
February has much more than Douglass and Lincoln to show for its significance in Black American History.