The origin of Black History Month can be traced back to the early 20th century when in 1926 Carter G. Woodson, along with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, announced the second week of February as Negro History Week in order to coincide with birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Negro History Week became a popular annual observance and was officially recognized by the U.S. government in the 1970s when it was expanded to become Black History Month. President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Blacks in America.
On Thursday, Feb. 16, Lou Belcher, an advocate for Black History, Elliott Reed, the only African-American on the Middlesex County School Board and its chairman, and Vince Carter, a Black Vietnam War vet and member of the Middlesex County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), addressed Nicole Ambrose’s U.S. History class at Middlesex High School.
Lou Belcher
Lou Belcher graduated in 1956 from the all-Black W.A. Pattillo High School in Tarboro, N.C. He spoke about the importance of education for all students and the significance of formerly segregated Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
He graduated from the all-Black St. Augustine College in Raleigh, N.C., and there he took on an activist role during the 1960s civil rights movement. Belcher went on to earn corporate jobs that brought him in contact with Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Doug Williams and other Black athletic celebrities.
Belcher spoke of the significance of HBCUs for Black Americans. He pointed out that Doug Williams was the first African-American to be a starting player on the team that won the Super Bowl. He graduated from an HBCU school in Grambling State University in Grambling, La. He also said that his daughter Angela was an undergraduate of Virginia State University near Petersburg and graduated from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. His son Travis also graduated from St. Augustine College. All are HBCUs.
Belcher spoke of his own experiences during segregation and how people like Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks gave him courage to stand up against discrimination. He also talked of Irene Morgan who in 1944 refused to give up her seat for a white person on a segregated bus coming from Gloucester County. When the bus stopped in Saluda, Middlesex’s own Sheriff Beverly Segar arrested her because she would not go to the back of the bus. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the court ruled that the Virginia law used to jail Morgan was unconstitutional. That was a decade before Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.
Elliott Reed
Elliott Reed is a Middlesex High School graduate. He spoke of a white person who made a racist remark to him when he was a little boy and it hurt bad. Years later when he had gotten his car stuck in a ditch that same person saw him on the road and told him he’d go home and get his wrecker and pull him out.
“He came back and helped me and charged me $10 to pull me out,” said Reed. “That was hardly enough to pay for gas it took for him to bring out his wrecker. I’ve found that people do change and as a Black person we need to understand times are much better now than during segregation and people do change.”
Vince Carter
Vince Carter spoke of his coming home a Black man from the Vietnam War. “Nobody wanted to see us coming, Black or white,” said Carter. “The war was not popular and it was right in the middle of the civil rights movement.
Carter was a 1965 graduate of St. Clare Walker High School, Middlesex County’s all-Black secondary school. “Take note to enjoy this privilege of going to public schools in a facility that allows diversity. This is an opportunity that most Black generations before you did not have,” said Carter.
Belcher, Reed and Carter all spoke to the class as a whole to respect one another and respect your teachers. “Please do not waste this time that will make your life better for a lifetime,” said Belcher. “You got to respect yourself before people will respect you.”
