Black History Month was began as a way of remembering important people and events in the History of African Americans. It is celebrated in February in the United States and Canada, but in the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom they celebrate in October(just a lil fun trivia for ya). Where did Black History Month began? In the summer of 1915 in Chicago an Alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Thousands of African Americans travelled from across the country to see exhibits highlighting the progress their people had made since the destruction of slavery.

Awarded a doctorate three years earlier from Harvard, Woodson joined the other exhibitors with a black history display. Despite being held in the Coliseum, the site of the 1912 Republican convention, an overflow crowd of six to twelve thousand waited outside for their turn to view these exhibits. Inspired by the three week celebration, Woodson decided to form an organization to promote the scientific study of black life and history before leaving town. On September 9th Woodson met at the Wabash YMCA with A.L. Jackson and three others and formed the Association for the study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).

He hoped that others would popularize the findings that he and the other black intellects would publish in The Journal of Negro History, which he established in 1916. He urged other black civic organizations to promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering. In 1924, after urging his fraternity brothers (Omega Psi Phi) to participate they responded with the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they renamed Negro Achievement Week. Although he appreciated what they had done he desired greater impact. He sent a press release announcing Negro History Week February 1926,

February was chosen for reasons of tradition and reform. Also because two great Americans who played a role in shaping black history Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, celebrated birthdays on the 12th and 14th respectively. As a tradition after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 the black community, along with other republicans had been celebrating Abraham Lincoln birthday. And since the late 1890’s, black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass. He built Negro History Week to commemorate the black past. He asked the public to extend their study of Black History. In doing so he increased his chances for success. He envisioned the study and celebration of the Negro as a race , not simply as the producers of a great man. Lincoln however great, had not freed the slaves the Union Army, including hundreds of thousands of black soldiers and sailors, had done that. His focus was on the countless black men and women who had contributed to the advance of human civilization.

The 1920s was the decade of the new Negro, a name given to the Post-War I generation because of its rising racial pride and consciousness. Urbanization and industrialization had brought over a million African Americans from the rural south into big cities of the nation. The expanding black middle class became participants in the consumers of black literature and culture. Black History clubs sprang up, teachers demanded materials to instruct their students, and progressive whites stepped in and endorsed the efforts. Woodson and his association scrambled to meet the demand. They set a theme for the annual celebration, and provided study materials, pictures, lessons for teachers, plays for historical performances, and posters of important dates and people. To serve the desire to reeducate black folks and the nation, ASNLH formed branches that stretched from coast to coast.

Woodson all the way until his death in 1950 believed that black history was too important to America and the world to cram into a limited time frame. He pressed for schools to use Negro History Week to demonstrate what students learned all year. The Negro History movement was an intellectual insurgency that was part of every larger effort to transform race relations. The 1960s had a dramatic effect on the study and celebrations of black history. By the late 1960s Black History Month had replaced Negro History Week at a quickening pace. Within the Association, younger intellectuals, part of the awakening, prodded Woodson’s organization to change with the times. They succeeded. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, the Association used its influence to institutionalize the shifts from a week to a month and from Negro History to Black History. Since the 1970s, every American President Democrat and Republican, has issued proclamations endorsing the Association’s annual theme. (This article was written by Daryl Michael Scott, Professor of History at Howard University). HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!!