Editor's note: Azna Amira is a writer for Northfield Patch and attended Carleton College in the late 1960s. This is a personal essay from her about Black History Month. When eminent black historian Carter Woodson instituted Negro History Week—which later became Black History Month—there was a desperate need for it. Woodson, who overcame poverty and illiteracy to earn a Ph.D in history from Harvard University, recognized the need of a people who had been written out of our country’s history books to have an awareness of their contributions to society. Ironically, now that reams of research …