29 Days in February That Created Black History Month

Every Black History Month, a faction of people still snear, “What about white history month?” Black History Month is racist, they argue, or tedious, or an obstacle to moving on. And while people joke that the demarcation was given to the shortest month in the calendar, February is also one of the nation's most historic, having witnessed the beginning of the civil rights movement at a lunch counter in North Carolina (1960), segregated respect for America's first veterans (1788), a generational expansion of slavery through a peace treaty with Mexico (1848), the dashed promise of "40 acres and a mule" (1866), the creation of baseball's Negro Leagues (1920), the murder that sparked Bloody Sunday (1965), the election of the first Black member of Congress (1869) and the first to actually become a member (1870). It served the reminder that we still drink segregated water (2017), as well as the first Oscar given to a Black actor (1940), plus a flurry of police shootings (1999 and 2019 highlight just a few). So here, for every day in February, are 29 vital reminders of our shared history—how America got to where we are today, and how we can only move forward when Black lives matter.