Stephanie Green – Mustangs Ahead

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL)- Mustangs are recognizing Black History Month this February.

Black History Month has a long history.  On February 7, 1926, many years after the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, Carter G. Woodson initiated the first Black History Week.

He started this to deepen the study and scholarship on African American history.

Congress Public Law 99-244 established the first Black History Month in 1986.

Compared to 1920, America has made big steps towards equality. Although there may still be work to do, conditions are nothing compared to the extreme segregation and discrimination that was seen in the 1920s.

Segregation severely degraded African Americans. It forced them into restaurants, schools, neighborhoods and other facilities based on race.  Activists and violators could be arrested or beaten publicly by police or people making a civil arrest.

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Without activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, the segregation era might have lasted a lot longer and equality would have been harder to achieve in the modern world.

In a speech by King he said, “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”