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Equal Employment Opportunity is a concept that is rooted in the idea of creating an environment where each individual can fully participate in the activities of an organization to his or her greatest ability without facing unnecessary obstacles. Goddard Space Flight Center is committed to equal opportunity and appreciation of diversity through policies, programs and activities that promote sensitivity and accommodations for all people.
"The strength at the core of a diverse workforce, is each individual's unique, yet equal, opportunity to succeed."
OF SPECIAL NOTE:
Click on Headline to go directly to description.
The History of Black History Month
The story of Black History Month begins a decade after the founding of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, originally named the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. When he conceived of the Association in 1915, Carter G. Woodson believed that publishing scientific history about the black race would produce facts that would prove to the world that Africa and its people had played a crucial role in the development of civilization.
As a Harvard-trained historian, Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that the truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. He thus established a scholarly journal, The Journal of Negro History, a year after he formed the Association. Scientific history, he believed, would counter racial falsehoods, and the community of white scholars would alter its view of the black race. Eventually the truth would trickle down to the public, and the race problem would gradually disappear.
A decade into his labors, Woodson began to think differently about the
inherent power of scholarship, the importance of the scholarly community
in promoting the truth, and the place of the community in the Association's
mission. Scholarship had not transformed race relations, and most white
historians had not come to recognize the truth when it was placed before
them.
As early as 1920, Woodson had urged black civic organizations to
promote the acheivements that researchers were uncovering. That year
he prodded his fraternity brothers at Omega Psi Phi to take up the work.
In 1924 they responded with the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they renamed Negro Achievement Week. By 1925, Woodson decided that the Association had to expand its program. Henceforth it would be an organization dedicated to discovering and popularizing the truth. The Association had to re~educate blacks as well as whites, and its doors had to be opened to all interested in history, not just historians and other scholars.
When the Association announced Negro History Week for 1926, Woodson was overwhelmed by the response. Black history clubs sprang up, teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils, and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort. Woodson and the Association scrambled to meet the demands of public history. For teachers, the Association published photographs and portraits of important black people. It published plays to dramatize black history. To serve the desire of history buffs to participate in the re~education of black folks, ASNLH formed branches to bring them into the organization.
Woodson selected the week of February that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two giants in the history of African Americans. Lincoln, of course, had issued the Emancipation Proclamation that moved the nation away from slavery, and Frederick Douglass had been the greatest leader of African Americans. Symbolically, the selection of Lincoln's and Douglass' birthdays as the week to study Black history reflected Woodson's belief that the history of African Americans was American history.
When Woodson passed in 1950, the Association continued the celebration of Negro History Week. By the time of his death, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid~century, in cities across the country, mayors issued proclamations noting Negro History Week.
The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history. The Freedom Schools established during the civil rights era all included the study of Black history. As African Americans entered into mainstream colleges, they demanded Black Studies and Black history became a central feature. Increasingly there were cries for more than a week to study Black history.
The Association, the center of the study of Black life and history, underwent its own changes, including a recognition of the need to devote more time to Black History. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, the Association held the first Black History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then all American presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, have issued Black History Month proclamations.
In keeping with tradition, the Association, now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, believes that Black history, like American history, should be studied 365 days a year. Yet as the Founders of Black History Month, ASALH continues to view February as the critical month for carrying forth the mission.
Daryl Michael Scott
Howard University
(C) 2007
By Daryl Michael Scott for ASALH at www.asalh.org
The 2010 Black History Theme
The History of Black Economic Empowerment
The following is taken from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
www.asalh.org
The need for economic development has been a central element of black life. After centuries of unrequited toil as slaves, African Americans gained their freedom and found themselves in the struggle to make a living. The chains were gone, but racism was everywhere. Black codes often prevented blacks from owning land in towns and cities, and in the countryside they were often denied the opportunity to purchase land. Organized labor shut their doors to their brethren, and even the white philanthropist who funded black schools denied them employment opportunities once educated. In the South, whites sought to insure that blacks would only be sharecroppers and day labors, and in the North whites sought to keep them as unskilled labor.
Pushing against the odds, African Americans became landowners, skilled workers, small businessmen and women, professionals, and ministers. In the Jim Crow economy, they started insurance companies, vocational schools, teachers colleges, cosmetic firms, banks, newspapers, and hospitals. To fight exclusion from the economy, they started their own unions and professional associations. In an age in which individuals proved unable to counter industrialization alone, they preached racial or collective uplift rather than individual self-reliance. The late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed an unprecedented degree of racial solidarity and organization.
In 1910, a group of dedicated reformers, black and white, gathered to create an organization to address the needs of African Americans as they migrated to the cities of the United States. The organization that they created a century ago became what we all know as the National Urban League. For a century, they have struggled to open the doors of opportunity for successive generations, engaging the challenges of each age. ASALH celebrates the centennial of the National Urban League by exploring racial uplift and black economic development in the twentieth century.
Equal Opportunity and Diversity Advisory Commmittees
The Equal Opportunity Programs Office sponsors the EO Advisory Committees for African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Individuals with Disabilities, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Women. The Goddard Diversity Council sponsors the GLBT Advisory Committee .
Each of these Committees is established by authority of, and operates under a Charter signed by, the Center Director.
For more information about these Commmittees, click on the name to go to its Web Site:
+
African American Advisory Committee
+ Asian-Pacific American Advisory Committee
+ Equal Accessibility Advisory Committee
+ GLBT Advisory Committee
+ Hispanic Advisory Committee for Employees
+ Native American Advisory Committee
+
Women's Advisory Committee
2007 Individual Development Plan (IDP) Survey Posted
The class action settlement states “supervisors shall be required to offer employees a meeting at least once per year to discuss and/or establish an IDP.”
In addition, a survey was required by the settlement to obtain candid views from employees on the IDP process. The following links to the 2007 IDP Survey.
2007 IDP survey data TEXT |PDF
In addition, Goddard posts the data from each survey starting in 2004 for your convenience, if you would like to compare them. You can find these reuslts at: http://eeo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classaction.html
Reasonable Accommodation: Procedures, Rights, and Responsibilities
Now availabe! A new EOPO Publication on requesting and providing reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities. This publication is available online in Word and Accessible PDF, and in print at the EOPO Office.
Reasonable Accommodation: Procedures, Rights, and Responsibilities [WORD]
Reasonable Accommodation: Procedures, Rights, and Responsibilities [Accessible PDF]
Reasonable Accommodation for Individuals with Disabilities
Information about the provision of reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities is easier to locate now.
+ Read More
Sexual Harassment Brochure
"Sexual Harassment: What it is and what you can do about it" is now available in print. Please contact the EOPO office for a copy.
+ View document in PDF : + View document in Word
This publication provides information about a variety of disabilities and suggested behaviors when interacting and communicating with individuals with disabilities. It is intended for people both with and without disabilities; supervisors, managers, employees, and co-workers who want to communicate more effectively with each other.
Request Sign Language Interpreters On Line!
Interpreter requests can now be made on line. (When you get to the page, follow the prompts.)
+ Sign Language Interpreter Scheduling System
[ For immediate contact with the Interpreting Office, please call (301) 286-8313, voice and TTY ]
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