Black Literary Holidays

Because Google Doesn't Run Your Life

I made a note post about Black History Holidays that everyone should have on their school calendar and someone pointed out that there were very few women. I made the post because Google recently decided to remove a number of days on the calendar that recognized Black History Month, Pride Month, and International Women’s Day. They claim it was for efficiency, but like Elon Musk’s DOGE it’s aim is to wipe the contributions of marginalized people from the public consciousness. I won’t let that happen.

Days to add to Your School Calendar since Google doesn't run your life

1/5 George Washington Carver Day

1/15 MLK Day 2/14 Frederick Douglass Day

3/5 Crispus Attucks Day 3/10 Harriet Tubman Day

4/16 Emancipation Day

5/21 Malcolm X Day

8/17 Marcus Garvey Birthday

8/28 March on Washington Anniversary

10/16 John Brown's Raid

10/17 Black Poetry Day

12/1 Rosa Parks Day

Now there are women on the list, but there could be more. It got me thinking about celebration and recognition and who gets it and who starts it. Opal Lee is the “grandmother” of Juneteenth. She is a retired teacher. She’s not particularly famous, she just set out to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday and she did it.

My point: We don’t have to be famous or “important” to make an impact.

I’m a librarian and an author. Here are some days I think we can all add to our teaching calendars and personal calendars to celebrate the written tradition in Black America.

There are a number of days that I recognize on the school calendar like Poem in Your Pocked Day, Pi Day, and the Ides of March which I use as a celebration of Shakespeare. Here are a few I think we should implement.

Ida B. Well’s Day - March 25th

Now, she was born in July, but died on March 25th. I think this is a great day to celebrate Black independent journalism. Watch Roland Martin and subscribe to his YouTube page. Visit the African American Newspaper Archive at the Library of Congress. Other activities could include a voting registration campaign since she was a suffragette, or writing postcards to Congress, continuing her legacy of activism.

Phyllis Wheatley Day - May 8th

The first African American Black Female Poet to be published deserves all the praise. We can celebrate her birthday by writing poems and trading them, posting them and leaving them in coffee shops, on community boards or on social media with the hashtag #forphyllis. Students can memorize one of her poems and recite them. If we’re really serious someone can start a scholarship program for the best recitation.

Phillis Wheatley

1753 –

1784

O Thou bright jewel in my aim I strive
To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare
Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach.
I cease to wonder, and no more attempt
Thine height t’explore, or fathom thy profound.
But, O my soul, sink not into despair,
Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand
Would now embrace thee, hovers o’er thine head.
Fain would the heav’n-born soul with her converse,
Then seek, then court her for her promis’d bliss.

Auspicious queen, thine heav’nly pinions spread,
And lead celestial Chastity along;
Lo! now her sacred retinue descends,
Array’d in glory from the orbs above.
Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years!
O leave me not to the false joys of time!
But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.
Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,
To give an higher appellation still,
Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,
O thou, enthron’d with Cherubs in the realms of day!

James Baldwin Day - 8/2 or 12/1

This is a day for letters. This is where we celebrate the essay and introspection. To celebrate we purchase journals and give them away. We read James Baldwin’s “Letter to my Nephew” and sit in a coffee shop.

“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

Zora Neal Hurston Day - 1/7

On her birthday we shall celebrate folktales. As a preservationist she preserved the language of African American people, especially in Florida. Some people felt like the dialect reflected poorly on Black folks because we didn’t speak in the same way that “educated” people did, but that didn’t take into account culture and slang and rhythm. She wrote novels and collected folktales. On her day we will tell folktales, act them out, and wear beautiful hats, because she was known for her hat collection.

Are there activities I left out? Is there anyone else we should add to the list?

---

My desire to add more holidays and to codify our celebration is definitely in response to the attack on Black History Month, but I’ve taken a lesson from the Moms for Liberty crowd and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. I’m using their own strategies against them. I talk more about it in a recent post.