Sociology Tool: History of Black History Month


In 1915, Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and Minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). In 1926, this organization, which studied and promoted achievements by black Americans and people of African descent, started a campaign called the Negro History week that encouraged schools and communities in the U.S. to learn about and celebrate Black culture and history for one week.

It wasn’t until the late 1960’s when people (mainly college students) started to extend the event to one month. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month and urged the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Source:

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month

Sociology Tool: Martin Luther King Jr. on capitalism


If you didn’t know, Martin Luther King Jr. was a radical who often criticized America and its policies. He wasn’t always an obedient person who only talked about race relations and equality.

Here is an example. In 1967, King spoke to the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) about how they must work harder to “revolutionize” society, as well as for fair distribution of political and economic power:
“We have more from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights,, an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We have been in a reform movement… But after Selma and the voting rights bill, we moved into a new era, which must be the era of revolution. We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”
Here’s more on King’s thoughts on capitalism (from The Young Turks):

Sociology Tool: Africville

(Africville, Halifax in 1965 via Rabble.ca)
Africville was a small community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the population was entirely Black. In the first half of the 19th century, this small community was treated unfairly by the government. Though many of the residents worked (ran fishing businesses, farms, and small stores) and paid taxes, they didn’t get the same benefits and services as other working Nova Scotians.

Some of the services they didn’t receive were paved roads, running water or sewers, public transportation, garbage collection, and adequate police protection. Rather, the City of Halifax placed unwanted services in the community. Some the services were a railway extension (1854), the Rockhead Prison (1854), and the Infectious Diseases Hospital (the 1870s), to name a few. Many Africville residents back then believed that the government allowed for this unfair treatment because they were anti-Black.

Confusing Social Concepts: Feminism



(I originally posted this article on my other blog, The Bamboo Post, but I thought I should post it here too because it is a sociological topic.)

Admit or not, feminists have a bad rep. They tend to be seen as crazy women who want to kill masculinity and will scream and bark false facts at all those who oppose them or deny their equal rights. But this is simply not true. Not all feminists are loud, scary, and evil, and I’m willing to bet that there are more nice feminists than there are mean ones.

However, this post isn’t about the visuals of feminists. Rather, it is about what feminism is and what most feminists fight for because it gets misconstrued quite a bit by the media.

So let’s travel back into history and look at the 3 waves of feminism.