Originating in the United States, Black History Month is an annual event which is now celebrated in several countries across Europe and North America. Initially, Negro History Week was established in 1926, but as consciousness grew amongst younger individuals in the 1960s there were calls for expansion and in 1976, the week became a month. February is the designated month of celebration in the United States and follows a theme provided by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), formerly the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).
Who was Carter G. Woodson?
Carter G. Woodson was the fourth of seven children, born to former slaves on December 19, 1875 in New Canton, Virginia. Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner in his younger years, but he had an eager mind and pursued education. Throughout his academic career, Woodson focused on the lives of black people, something that was often overlooked in scholarship, especially by white scholars. Among the works for which he is best known is The Mis-Education of the Negro, published in 1933.
He believed that black people should know, and be proud of, their history and achievements and that Americans should also understand the achievements of African Americans. Woodson died from a heart attack at the age of 74 in 1950, but his work and his beliefs are still upheld today with Black History Month.
What Are the Origins of Black History Month?
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterIn 1915, Woodson travelled from Washington, D.C. to Illinois to participate in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. Heavily inspired by the celebration, he decided to form an organization to promote the study of black life and history. On September 9th, Woodson met with A. L. Jackson and three others at the Wabash YMCA where they formed the ASNLH. Their outreach was significant, but Woodson desired greater reach- he wanted to further popularize knowledge about black history and in February 1926 he announced Negro History Week. [2]
Negro History Week appeared across the country, taken up by the public and in schools. The Association set a theme for the week and provided study materials- due to this, schools could create Negro History Clubs. The week received a great response, and Woodson was overwhelmed by the response the Associations work received. Negro History Week grew and grew in popularity, so much so that it eventually became a month.
Why Is Black History Month in February?
When Woodson launched Negro History Week, he chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass (the 12th and the 14th, respectively).
Lincoln and Douglass both had significant roles in the abolishment of slavery across the US; Douglass was an abolitionist who had escaped slavery and Lincoln formally abolished slavery during his presidency. [3] The black community already celebrated Lincoln’s birthday following his assassination in 1865 and had celebrated Douglass’s birthday since the 1890s. Therefore, it made sense to build Negro History Week around these dates as they were already used to commemorate black history.
Although he used tradition as a foundation to build from, Woodson also wanted to shift the focus on two great men to a focus on a great race. Rather than focusing on two men, he believed, the focus should be on the black men and women who had contributed to the advance of not only black history, but civilization. [4]
How Did Negro History Week Become Black History Month?
In the 1940s, efforts within black communities to expand the study of black history in schools and to expand celebrations before the public continued. One of the first states to celebrate February as Negro History Month was West Virginia, in the 1940s. The 1960s saw continuous resistance to Jim Crow laws and segregation and, coupled with increasing study of black history in Freedom Schools (free alternative schools designed to provide better education), consciousness amongst black communities grew. Similarly, across college campuses, Black History month quickly began to replace Negro History Week. [5]
Younger individuals who were part of ASNLH pushed for the organization to make a permanent change and in 1976, the Association used its influence to change the week to a month and to change Negro history to black history. In 1986, Congress passed a law officially designating February as National Black (Afro-American) History Month and since 1996, every American president has issued proclamations to endorse the Association’s annual theme.
What Is the Theme for February 2025?
The ASALH has provided themes each year since 1928; the theme for 2025 is African Americans and Labor. According to the Association, the theme was chosen to encourage reflections on the intersections between black people’s work and their workplaces; how working intersects with the collective experiences of black people. [6] Significantly, 2025 is the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, a black union created by activist A. Philip Randolph.
Sources:
[1] https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/carter-g-woodson
[2] Pero Gaglo Dagbovie, The Early Black History Movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Johnston Greene (New Black Studies Series) (University of Illinois Press, 2007), pp.1-8.
[3] The Emancipation Proclamation, James C. Welling, The North American Review, Vol. 130, No. 279 (February 1880), pp. 163-185.
[4] https://asalh.org/about-us/origins-of-black-history-month/
[5] Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow (the University of Georgia Press, 2017), pp. 101-104.
