Celebrating Black History Beyond Just the Month of February

Posted on Mar. 8, 2024  /  Subscribe 0

In 1915, half a century after the 13^th amendment abolished slavery in the US, a historian founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which began sponsoring a national week of recognition in 1926. They choose the second week of February as it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Communities, organizations, and schools started celebrating and President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976. This is a time to honor the contributions and legacy of black individuals across US history and society. There are many ways to celebrate Black history not only during Black History Month but also beyond: support black owned businesses (https://www.miiriya.com/), learn about noteworthy black figures and their contributions (https://www.blackpast.org/), and donate to charities that support anti-racism equity and equality (https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/335). 

There are also many ways we can help support our Black students. According to the 2020 US Census Data, 59.3% of the population identifies as white, 29.5% non-Black persons of color and 13.6% Black. Meanwhile, a study evaluating images found in surgical textbooks found that 90.7% of images were white, 6.5% were non-black persons of color, and 2.8% were black (Anderton et al., 2023). An additional study found that a review of general medicine textbooks estimated that only 4.5% of all images illustrated individuals with dark skin (Adelekun et al., 2021). Thus, as educators, increasing representation of all skin tones in lectures is an important tool to provide a more accurate depiction of the world’s diversity. A few resources for images depicting individuals with darker skin tones can be found here: Mind the Gap- a handbook of clinical signs in black and brown skin; Galleries - Positive Exposure. Please share any others that you might be aware of! Additionally, for those who work with human donors, a great way to support black students is to increase recruitment efforts for Black donors to improve inclusivity and provide students a more accurate representation of all skin tones in the anatomy lab. But let’s be mindful that we are not just celebrating and honoring contributions of Black people for a single month out of the year, but rather every month out of the year.

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