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The opening days of Black History Month 2023 have coincided with controversy about the teaching and broader meaning of African American studies.

, the College Board released a revised curriculum for its newly developed Advanced Placement African American studies course.

Critics have accused the College Board of caving to political pressure stemming from conservative backlash and the decision of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to from public high schools in Florida because of what he characterized as its radical content and inclusion of topics such as , and the movement.

On Feb. 11, 1951, an article by the 82-year-old Black scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois titled 鈥溾�� appeared in the short-lived New York newspaper The Daily Compass.

As one of the founders of the NAACP in 1909 and the editor of its powerful magazine , Du Bois is considered by historians and intellectuals from many academic disciplines as America鈥檚 . His thoughts and opinions still carry weight throughout the world.

Du Bois鈥� words in that 1951 article are especially prescient today, offering a reminder about the importance of Black History Month and what is at stake in current conversations about African American studies.

Du Bois began his Daily Compass commentary by praising , founder of the , who established Negro History Week in 1926. The week would eventually become Black History Month.

Du Bois described the annual commemoration as Woodson鈥檚 鈥渃rowning achievement.鈥�

Woodson was to earn a doctorate in history from Harvard University. .

Du Bois and Woodson did not always see eye to eye. However, as in my new book, 鈥�,鈥� the two pioneering scholars always respected each other.

Reckoning with history and reclaiming the past

Du Bois鈥� connection to and appreciation of Negro History Week grew during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. , whether in public speeches or published articles, he never missed an opportunity to acknowledge the importance of Negro History Week.

In the Feb. 11, 1951, article, Du Bois reflected that his own contributions to Negro History Week 鈥渓ay in my long effort as a historian and sociologist to make America and Negroes themselves aware of the significant facts of Negro history.鈥�

Summarizing his work from his first book, 鈥�,鈥� published in 1896, through his magnum opus 鈥�,鈥� published in 1935, Du Bois told readers of the Daily Compass piece that much of his career was spent trying 鈥渢o correct the distortion of history in regard to Negro enfranchisement.鈥�

By doing so, the nation would hopefully become, Du Bois wrote further, 鈥渃onscious that this part of our citizenry were normal human beings who had served the nation credibly and were still being deprived of their credit by ignorant and prejudiced historians.鈥�

In addition to championing Negro History Week, Du Bois applauded other Black scholars, like , and , who were 鈥渟teadily attacking鈥� the omissions and distortions of Black people in school textbooks.

Du Bois went on to chronicle the achievements of African Americans in science, religion, art, literature and the military, making clear that Black people had a history to be proud of.

Du Bois, however, questioned what deeper meaning these achievements held to the issues facing Black people in the present.

鈥淲hat now does Negro History Week stand for?鈥� he asked in the 1951 article. 鈥淪hall American Negroes continue to learn to be 鈥榩roud鈥� of themselves, or is there a higher broader aim for their research and study?鈥�

鈥淚n other words,鈥� he asserted, 鈥渁s it becomes more universally known what Negroes contributed to America in the past, more must logically be said and taught concerning the future.鈥�

The time had come, Du Bois believed, for African Americans to stop striving to be merely 鈥渢he equal of white Americans.鈥�

Black people needed to cease emulating the worst traits of America 鈥� flamboyance, individualism, greed and financial success at any cost 鈥� and support , and .

He especially encouraged the systematic study of the imperial and economic roots of racism: 鈥淗ere is a field for Negro History Week.鈥�

Black history and Black struggle

Looking ahead, Du Bois declared that if Negro History Week remained 鈥渢rue to the ideals of Carter Woodson鈥� and followed 鈥渢he logical development of the Negro Race in America,鈥� it would not confine itself to the study of the past nor 鈥渂oasting and vainglory over what we have accomplished.鈥�

鈥淚t will not mistake wealth as the measure of America, nor big-business and noise as World Domination,鈥� Du Bois wrote in his article.

Instead, Du Bois believed Negro History Week would 鈥渃oncentrate on study of the present,鈥� 鈥渘ot be afraid of radical literature鈥� and, above all else, advocate for peace and voice 鈥渆ternal opposition against war between the white and colored peoples of the earth.鈥�

Were he alive today, Du Bois would certainly have much to say about current debates around the teaching of African American history and the larger significance of African American studies. on Aug. 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana.

But he left behind his clairvoyant words that remind us of the connections between African American studies and movements for Black liberation, along with how the teaching of African American history has always challenged racist and exclusionary narratives of the nation鈥檚 past.

Du Bois also reminds us that Black History Month is rooted in a legacy of activism and resistance, one that continues in the present.

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