2022 Black History Month Theme Encourage Us To Look Back, To Propel Forward
As Black History triumphs on, February marked my second full month as a freelance writer for Black Enterprise. Ironically enough, it also signifies the most I’ve learned about the month that honors the nation’s greatest Black moments and greatest Black people.
Image Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
During one of my shifts, I discovered a gem while sourcing online for my assignments.
Did you know? Black History Month has a theme.
This is all thanks to the genius of Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). When he established Negro History week in 1926, he recognized the importance of providing a theme to shed light on the evolving Black experience.
The theme for 2022 spotlights Black Health and Wellness, which celebrates “the legacy of not only Black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine, but also other ways of knowing (e.g., birthworkers, doulas, midwives, naturopaths, herbalists, etc.) throughout the African Diaspora,” as stated on the ASALH website.
In the still looming shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black community’s suffering comes in different forms: the rising suicides among Black youth, the ongoing fight for economic and health disparities and discrimination within the medical field, and more.
This National Women’s History Month focuses on “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” a call to action fitting for the current climate. Selected by the National Women’s History Month Alliance, this month pays tribute "to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history, ” as per the organization’s website.
As we understand the need for the betterment of our mind, our bodies, our relationships, and our communities — we can truly embrace that because of them, we can. We must remember the Black women who have left a powerful mark in the health, medicine and wellness space.
Here are a few names of the Black woman pioneers who continues to serve as a beacon of our past and the light for our future.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler: First Black American woman to obtain a medical degree, first Black American to publish a medical book.
Mamie Phipps Clark: First Black American woman to earn a doctorate degree in psychology from Columbia University; Designer and conductor of the famous doll tests psychological effects of segregation on African-American children.
Shafia Monroe: Dubbed “Queen Mother of a Midwifery Movement” who has worked since the 1970s to reduce the high Black infant and maternal mortality rates.