Black History Month should encourage the study of everyone's history

“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

These are the words of historian Carter G. Woodson, as quoted in the article “Negro History Week” from the April 1926 edition of the Journal of Negro History. Woodson, along with members of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, played key roles in the creation of a week celebrating the accomplishments and history of African-Americans beginning in that same year.

Originally the observance was held during the wee...