In February 1926, the Black historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week, which later became known as Black History Month. In 1915, along with others, Woodson also helped to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and, in 1916, he started the Journal of Negro History. By 1933, Woodson’s powerful book, The Miseducation of the Negro, was published.

Woodson was a Black intellectual who fought to have the history of Black people told. At the time of his book, Woodson understood that Black people were being miseducated, inculcated with egregious ideas about Black “inferiority” and indoctrinated to believe that they were historyless. He understood that a key part of white supremacy involves the attempt to control the very thoughts of Black people and thereby their actions, arguing that this domination strategy is aimed at producing a situation in which white people “do not have to tell [Black people] not to stand here or go yonder. [They] will find [their] ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.” Hence, for Woodson, the education of Black people necessarily entailed the interrogation of white ideology and mythology that passed itself off as “knowledge.” Education for Black people was designed to liberate and decolonize their minds and generate political action.

When I think about our current celebration of Black History Month, I wonder if Woodson would approve of how this month is being practiced. Is our current approach to this month radical enough in relation to Black knowledge production? To address this theme and others, I reached out to the prolific scholar Molefi Kete Asante, professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University, who has published over 100 books, most recently, The Precarious Center, or When Will the African Narrative Hold? The interview that follows has been lightly edited for clarity.

George Yancy: What do you think Carter G. Woodson would say about how Black History Month is recognized and celebrated in the U.S.? I am worried that, like MLK Day, Black History Month will be stripped of moments and Black figures in history that are deemed “too radical.”

Molefi Kete Asante: Carter G. Woodson was a visionary; he would have visualized an African American population well educated and capable of educating fellow citizens about the achievements and accomplishments of African people. He would say that Black history is American history, and that the celebration of Black history is a profoundly American event. Yet Woodson would not think that merely celebrating was enough; he would wish for an action agenda that would see African American history taught in all public schools because it is the glue that helps students explain social, political and economic discrepancies.

As to what is radical, no one in our history who has added to the victories over micro- and macro-aggressions needs to be avoided in Black history. It is not just the........

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