Black History Month: Overview

Introduction

Black History Month is an annual observance period set aside to honor the lives and history of Black people. The month is honored with historical, cultural, and educational presentations in several countries with substantial Black minority populations. In the United States, Black History Month (sometimes also known as African American History Month) is observed during the month of February. It is marked by various public and private programs designed to raise awareness about the contributions of Black citizens in the United States, as well as the difficulties and challenges faced by Africans and their descendants in the African diaspora.

Some people believe that Black History Month provides an important and necessary framework for exploring the importance of Black American history and the contributions of Black Americans to modern society. They argue that designating a specific month to focus on Black American history is a useful tool for those preparing educational curricula on the subject and that the month also provides encouragement for scholars and educators to investigate the lives of lesser-known Black American historical figures. However, critics of Black History Month and other designated history months, such as Women’s History Month, argue that these observations only serve to maintain divisions between different subsets of society and may marginalize groups that have not received similar recognition. Another criticism is that the designation of a single month might perpetuate the idea that Black American history can be addressed in an abbreviated fashion, while the actual contributions of Black Americans should be appreciated in every aspect of the nation’s history.

Understanding the Discussion

African diaspora: The historic movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, through both the international slave trade and voluntary emigration.

Civil rights: Category of personal rights referring to an individual’s right to take part in the civic and political processes of their state or country.

Discrimination: Making a distinction in favor of or against an individual because of the class, race, creed, or other group to which the person belongs.

Heritage: Beliefs, customs, traditions, and history passed from one generation to the next within a certain cultural, social, or historical group.

Observance: A customary practice, rite, or ceremony.

Racism: Belief that inherent differences between racial groups determine the potential for cultural or personal achievement and ability; behavioral patterns marked by hatred, intolerance, or discrimination against a race or races.

History

Prominent Black American activist Carter Godwin Woodson (1875–1950), a historiographer by training, is considered the first person to suggest setting aside an annual period to recognize the experiences of Black Americans. Woodson received a PhD in history from Harvard University, becoming the second African American to earn a doctorate from that institution. As a historian, Woodson studied Black American culture in relation to the American education system. He became interested in the ways in which the legacy of slavery affected educational and intellectual attainment within the Black American community.

Slave laws had explicitly forbidden the teaching of enslaved Black Americans to read and write, and this helped to create a multigenerational educational disparity that greatly affected the degree to which Black American contributions to history were recorded. Woodson believed that this early educational imbalance placed later Black Americans at a disadvantage with regard to educational achievement, and that this further affected Black Americans’ ability to preserve their own history. Woodson pioneered a number of initiatives meant to address this issue, including founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (later the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, ASALH) in 1915. That organization began publishing the Journal of Negro History (later the Journal of African American History) in 1916.

Woodson initially found little support for his efforts outside a few academics who purchased subscriptions to his publication. Eventually, Woodson’s initiatives attracted the attention of Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish businessman and philanthropist from Springfield, Illinois. Partially because he was a Jewish American, Rosenwald had a keen interest in helping marginalized groups. He dedicated one hundred dollars per quarter to Woodson’s journal, becoming the first White American to support Woodson and the ASALH. With this funding, Woodson was able to expand publication of the journal.

In 1926, Woodson and the ASALH designated the second week in February as National Negro Week; they chose the week because it contains the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two major figures in Black American history. From the beginning, Woodson made it clear that he intended Negro History Week to serve as a focal point for “celebrating” the role of Black Americans in American history, rather than for airing grievances regarding the continued discrimination and racism suffered by Black Americans. Woodson wrote in one of his annual bulletins regarding the event, “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world.”

During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some Black American leaders spoke out against National Negro Week, calling it a relatively superficial gesture to address the ongoing prejudice and inequality present in the educational system. During the United States Bicentennial in 1976, the ASALH expanded Black History Week—as it had been renamed in 1972—into a month-long annual observance. In a speech delivered that year, President Gerald R. Ford praised the concept, saying that “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

In 1986 the United States Congress passed, and President Ronald Reagan signed, Public Law 99-244, which formally established Black History Month as a federally designated observance. During the 1980s and 90s, the concept of Black History Month also spread internationally. In the United Kingdom, the Greater London Council and a coalition of African European leaders helped to initiate a Black History Month in Britain, observed in October. In 1995, Canada's House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to recognize Black History Month in Canada in the month of February. As it steadily gained prominence in the US and elsewhere, Black History Month gradually attracted commercial attention as well. Into the early twenty-first century, some corporations increasingly used the month to produce or promote products aimed at Black American audiences. While some observers suggested this only served to further increase the visibility of the event, others criticized such marketing efforts as potentially exploitative.

Black History Month Today

By the 2020s, observances of Black History Month were held in nearly every city and state in the United States. Public school systems in most states were directed to present at least some programs aimed at addressing Black American history and culture in February, and numerous other artistic and cultural presentations were commonplace. Many industries, from culinary to film, scheduled events and programs specific to the Black American experience during the commemorative month. For example, the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) was one of the largest events held in the United States to celebrate Black History Month, featuring two weeks of performances by Black American artists and filmmakers. Observations also extended to the federal government, and the US Census Bureau released a special set of statistics regarding the state of the Black American population each year to coincide with the beginning of Black History Month.

Beginning in 1928, ASALH set a theme for each year’s Black History Month celebration, meant to convey a focus on some specific area within the broader category of Black American achievement. Official Black History Month themes in the twenty-first century included “Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social, and Civic Institutions” (2006), “African Americans and the Civil War” (2011), and "The Crisis in Black Education" (2017). The 2020 theme for Black History Month was “African Americans and the Vote,” which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Fifteenth Amendment. Other themes in the 2020s included "The Black Family" (2021), "Black Health and Wellness" (2022), "Black Resistance" (2023), and "African Americans and the Arts" (2024).

As Black History Month has grown more prominent, however, criticism of the observance has also become more common in popular culture. Modern criticisms of Black History Month have typically fallen into two general categories: the belief that Black American history is too significant to the nation to be properly addressed in only a month-long period, and the belief that the separation of Black American history from the rest of American history serves to intensify divisions between racial groups rather than to help combat racism.

In the 2010s and 2020s, the debate regarding the observation of Black History Month was particularly shaped by increased discussion of racial justice issues following several high-profile incidents of police brutality against Black people. The rise of US president Donald Trump—who was known for making racially insensitive remarks and was widely criticized for contributing to a surge in White supremacist activity—also heightened public attention to racial tensions in general. Many commentators felt that Black History Month, while first and foremost continuing to emphasize Black American history, remained relevant in that it could also serve as a time for Americans to reflect on learning from the past and how it informs contemporary society, including through both systemic inequality and more overt forms of racism. However, others—including some critics within the Black community—continued to argue that Black History Month, while perhaps well-intentioned, in fact undermines the goal of true racial justice.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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