Welcome to the Brown School’s 2023 Black History Month recognition. This year’s theme is Resistance Against Oppression.

We honor and commemorate our ancestors, our contemporaries, our next generation, and our co-conspirators who have gone above and beyond in every aspect of the preservation of Black lives, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Since 1619, resistance has been ingrained in our heritage, our culture, and legacy. Nonviolence in every expression was the hallmark of the Civil Rights movement.


Black History at the Brown School

Dean Benjamin E. Youngdahl (served 1945–1962) with students of the first integrated class at the Brown School in 1961.

In 1945, the social work department became its own school, offering a Master of Social Work degree. We soon began a doctoral program and became the first school at Washington University to admit African-American students.

Learn more about our history here!

Origins of Black History Month

The antecedent to Black History Month was launched in the second week of February, 1926 by Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. This week was also chosen to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas. The first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State from January 2 to February 28, 1970.

Since 1976 every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February, also known as African American History Month, as an annual national observance recognizing the central role and significant contributions that Black Americans have made to our nation’s history, life and culture.

Black History Month received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada (February) and more recently has been observed in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (October).

Thank you for being part of this journey.

Gratefully,

Cynthia D. Williams
Assistant Dean for Community Partnerships
Co-Chair, Black History Month Committee 2023


Fifty-Plus Years of Black Excellence in Teaching

What I teach is to how to change our thought processes in order to be able to walk in different cultures, and to deal with the African American urban struggle.

Jack Kirkland, Associate Professor, Brown School

A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.

John R. Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, member of Congress, author

Symbolism in the BHM Imagery

The Flag

The red, black, and green colors incorporated into the imagery are drawn from the Pan-African Flag. Designed by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNA), it was adopted by the organization on August 13, 1920.

Black Lives Matter

We also honor and acknowledge the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement with the inclusion of yellow. The organization’s mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.


The Bus

For the civil rights movement, buses represent one of the most important battlegrounds in the fight against segregation and oppression.  Conceived in 1947, African American and white civil rights activists participated in Freedom Rides to test a Supreme Court decision that declared segregation on interstate buses unconstitutional.  The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. They called national attention to the disregard for federal law; and the local violence used to illegally enforce segregation in the United States.


Fifty Years of Black Activism and Study

We ask for this Black Studies Program because we feel it is not only necessary for our education, but for our very survival.

The Black Manifesto

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

James Baldwin, author, poet, activist, orator