Mercyhurst celebrated Black History Month

By Bella Lee

Staff writer

February is always seen as being a very important month in American culture and history. That is because it is Black History Month.

In a time where Black history and culture is still very much underappreciated and misunderstood, Black History Month allows for our community to become more educated.

Black History Month finds its origins in 1915, when Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland founded what is now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

In 1926, the group proposed a Black History Week in the second week of February, to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

In the late 1960s, thanks to the push of students at Kent State University, Black History Week expanded into Black History Month, and was officially recognized by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

Since 1976, each Black History Month has had a special theme. The theme for 2023 is “Black Resistance,” which explores how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings since the beginnings of the United States.

In honor of Black History Month, Multicultural Student Services and Mercyhust Student Government spon -