Here in the UK, the month of October is marked by Black History Month. Black History Month first began across the pond in the USA in 1976 to honour the achievements and accomplishments of Black Americans throughout American history, and has been celebrated every February in America since.
Here in the UK, the month of October is marked by Black History Month. Black History Month first began across the pond in the USA in 1976 to honour the achievements and accomplishments of Black Americans throughout American history, and has been celebrated every February in America since.
Just over a decade later in the UK in 1987, we adopted the month of October to celebrate Black History in response to community activism to challenge the Eurocentric version of History within schools and racism within British society. Being so close to the start of the academic year would encourage schools to expand upon the Eurocentric version of history they were teaching at the time, however, this does not come without its problems.
Whilst acknowledging and teaching Black history is ultimately positive, the campaign has received critical comments; that it is patronising, an excuse to ignore Black history the rest of the year, as well as separating Black history from British history. Confining it to a single month of the year simply perpetuates the ideology that it should be excluded from our education for 11 out of 12 months of the year.
At Leeds Beckett SU, we believe that Black history is history, and thus should be celebrated and included in education all year round. With that in mind, we want to liberate ourselves from the notion that education and celebrations of Black history should exclusively take place in October. Rather than confining our celebrations to a single month, this year your Officer Team have made the choice to launch a year-long campaign named the Leeds Beckett Black Liberation to provide opportunities to learn about and celebrate Black History all year round this academic year. This campaign is led by Ashleigh Pinnock, your Welfare Officer. Keep an eye on this webpage for updates on events and projects!
Our aim is to center community, empowerment, and healing within this campaign. We want to focus on building and strengthening our community in order to stand and learn together; empower each other to take up space, build confidence and ultimately heal from past and current racial tensions and disparities still present within our community. We are holding events around these three key matters; community, empowerment, and healing. These events will include the likes of movie nights, well-being and therapy sessions, confidence-building training, panel discussions, and more!
Most importantly, we want to hear from you on what events you want to see us put on this year. Community is at the heart of this campaign, so we'd love to know the type of events you'd like to see more of and how you want to get involved with Leeds Beckett Black Liberation. Maybe you would like to create and host your own? Let us know using the form here. You can also follow us on social media at both @LeedsBeckettSU and @LBSUofficers, for updates and use #LeedsBeckettBlackLiberation to let us know your thoughts!
Ashleigh, Welfare Officer x