Every February, the nation celebrates Black History Month by honoring the contributions African Americans have made throughout history, while also recognizing that the fight for racial justice continues.
Previously, the theme for Black History Month was Black Health and Wellness, as outlined by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. This year, the association has announced the month’s theme is “Black resistance” with a planned virtual festival hosted by the association throughout February.
“African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings since our arrival upon these shores,” said the ASALH in a statement.
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“These efforts have been to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the United States political jurisdiction,” added the association.
Jesse Jackson and others pose with copies of “Paul Robeson, the Great Forerunner” by the editors of Freedomways, 1980.
(Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
Scores of events across the country – in cities, communities, college campuses and more – are scheduled for this month.
10 key facts about Black History Month
1. The current population of Black and African Americans is 46.9 million, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. Also, 89.4% of African Americans age 25 and older had a high school diploma or higher in 2020, as Fox10 Phoenix reported.
2. A founder of ASALH, Carter G. Woodson, first had the idea of celebrating Black history. Woodson was born in 1875 to newly freed Virginia slaves. He later earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. He worried that Black children were not being taught about their ancestors’ achievements in American schools in the early 1900s, as Fox 10 noted.
3. By the late 1960s, Negro History Week – the precursor for this month’s celebrations and events – changed into what is now known as Black History Month. In February 1969, a group of Black activist students and teachers at Kent State conducted the first celebration of Black History Month. Within a decade, Black social and cultural institutions throughout the country were celebrating the month, and by 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized it.
4. The month of February was picked for Black History Month because it contained the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, and Douglass, a former slave who did not know his precise birthday, celebrated his date of birth on Feb. 14, Fox 10 also noted.
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5. ASALH has celebrated Negro History Week and Black History Month for 96 years. Woodson, along with the association, announced in 1926 that the second week of February would commemorate the achievements of Black Americans. Initially, prominent Black leaders and newspapers supported the idea, and some education centers along the East Coast observed the monthly celebration.
6. Fifty years after the first celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month at the country’s 1976 bicentennial. Ford called on Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history,” as History.com noted.
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7. Forty years after Ford’s recognition of Black History Month, President Barack Obama delivered this message, in part, from the White House: “Black History Month shouldn’t be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history or somehow just boiled down to a compilation of greatest hits from the March on Washington or from some of our sports heroes… It’s about the lived, shared experience of all African Americans.”
Former President Barack Obama
(Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
8. Canada also commemorates Black History Month in February. Although Black Canadians are approximately 3.5% of the country’s total population, community leaders and activists still celebrate the historical achievements of the Black community. Canadian politicians Jean Augustine and Donald Oliver were instrumental in getting Black History Month officially recognized in the country by 2008.
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9. At the time of Negro History Week’s launch in 1926, Woodson believed the teaching of Black history was key to the physical and intellectual survival of the race: “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” he said in part, as the Journal of Negro History reported.
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10. The 2023 theme for Black History Month is resistance; past themes have included Black health and wellness, family, migration and Black women in American culture and history, among others.