Why Black History Month MattersBy: Impact Humanities These veterans expanded the image of an American. Negro History Week, which became Black History Month, was meant to as Dr. Woodson said "…inspire us to greater achievements" Asa Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) directly challenge the 32nd President for blacks having equal access to wartime jobs, which contractors' discriminatory employment practices excluded them from having. They threaten to organize a massive march on the Capitol mall unless their conditions were met. Fearing the optics, President Roosevelt acquiesced and the Fair Employment Protection Commission was initiated. That original March on Washington, scheduled for 1 July 1941, was cancelled. Remembering the achievements of A. Philip Randolph or the unimaginable obstacles of segregated units during World War One and Two, makes it impossible not to compare those times of flux with today. Our culture stubbornly remains linked to old narratives of struggle and national identity. We need an honest and clear assessment of our past. Better understanding ourselves and history will be challenging, at times disarming, yet perhaps as simple as a brisk contemplative walk on a February day acknowledging that "we are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements." End
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