Black History Month

Black History Month
Name	Black History Month
Observedby	United States; Canada; United Kingdom; Ireland; Netherlands (select communities)
Type	Annual observance
Frequency	Annual
Month	February (United States, Canada); October (United Kingdom, Ireland)
Origins	Negro History Week; Carter G. Woodson
First	1926 (Negro History Week); 1976 (US national recognition)

Contents

Black History Month is an annual observance dedicated to commemorating the histories, achievements, and experiences of people of African descent, including figures such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. It originated from earlier initiatives by scholars and activists including Carter G. Woodson, Asa Philip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune and institutions such as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Origins and Early History

The observance traces to Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History establishing Negro History Week in 1926 to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, building on scholarship from historians like W. E. B. Du Bois, Benjamin Brawley, Rayford Logan and archives at the Library of Congress and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Early proponents connected civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph and educators including Mary McLeod Bethune and Charles Hamilton Houston with cultural institutions like the NAACP and historically black colleges and universities such as Howard University and Tuskegee Institute to promote curricula about figures like Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington and Ida B. Wells.

Expansion from a week to a month involved activists, student groups, and politicians including Carter G. Woodson's successors at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, civil rights organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality, and elected officials such as members of the United States Congress and President Gerald Ford who in 1976 gave broader recognition during the United States Bicentennial. Institutional support grew through museums and libraries like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, cultural centers including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, academic departments at Harvard University, Howard University, Spelman College, and national campaigns led by organizations such as the NAACP, Urban League, and philanthropic foundations associated with figures like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller III.

Communities and institutions observe the month with programs that highlight artists and activists such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, August Wilson, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and events referencing movements like the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power movement. Typical observances include exhibitions at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, lectures by scholars from Howard University and Columbia University, performances staged at venues like Apollo Theater and Kennedy Center, and commemorations at historic sites such as Auburn Avenue and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The observance influenced curricula and scholarship across universities and schools, prompting courses that study the works of W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, bell hooks, and archival collections at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. Media and publishing industries have foregrounded authors and creators including Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chinua Achebe, Maya Angelou, August Wilson, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, and musicians such as Nina Simone and Marvin Gaye, while museums like the National Portrait Gallery and community organizations such as the NAACP and Urban League have fostered public programming.

Scholars, activists, and cultural critics including Cornel West, bell hooks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Molefi Kete Asante, and commentators from institutions like Harvard University and Princeton University have debated whether a designated month marginalizes the study of African diasporic history or risks tokenism of figures such as Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Madam C. J. Walker, Colin Powell, and Muhammad Ali. Debates have addressed representation of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, and continental African subjects including Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, and lesser-known activists archived in collections at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the British Library.

Different countries mark related observances at different times and with different emphases: in the United Kingdom and Ireland the month is observed in October with programming referencing figures like Mary Seacole, Olive Morris, C. L. R. James, and institutions such as the Black Cultural Archives; in Canada February observances highlight subjects including Viola Desmond, Marcus Garvey and organizations such as the Canadian Race Relations Foundation; international commemorations reference leaders like Haile Selassie, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and regional archives in the South African National Archives and the James A. Lenox Library.

Category:Commemorative months