Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Americans have been celebrating the recognition of Black History Month since 1926 when historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson started "Negro History Week". Black history had barely begun to be studied or even documented when the tradition originated.

Enrolled in high school at age twenty, Dr. Woodson was born to parents who were former slaves and spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines. He graduated from high school within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population-and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time.

He established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915, and a year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History

In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Sources: Infoplease.com & PJC Corsair

Editorial:

Remember when rap music, like rock, was looked down upon with disdain by many, but the fans loved it and supported the artists anyway...

Before rock and rap became multi-billion dollar industries with glitzy music awards shows.

Well, who decided it would be a good idea or business model to take music videos away from the fans who shaped the industry and force every fan in the world onto a handful of monopolized portals controlled by the Internet elite? Music video views will be waaayyy down!

Lest we forget Flo Rida set sales records [downloads via itunes] during a time when music videos were proliferating across the web like jack rabbits in the springtime via countless uploads on many websites...pre-VEVO!

When fans like a song, they will buy the ringtones, the CDs and/or go to the concerts. This is why you do not want to limit access to the music and is exactly why you want as many people to see music videos across the globe as possible.

Music videos by their very nature and intent are viral creations.

Is this truly about record comanies protecting against copyright infringement or is it more about controlling the music product and thus controlling the fans?

Big name artists who embrace this shift of the music away from the people in this coordinated overreaction may find their fans turning to new, unknown underground artists who need, appreciate and thirst for the publicity and exposure because...HELLO...fans like to share music videos.

Jabuki - The New Don Cornelius