Hammerin’ Hank in the Chippewa Valley
February marks Black History Month, a federally recognized, nationwide celebration that calls on all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African-Americans have played in shaping US history. But how did this celebration come to be - and how has it shaped the Chippewa Valley by one local legend? Carter G. Woodson, considered a pioneer in the study of African-American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month. The story begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America's black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and [...]









