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Black History Month

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Since 1926, Black History Month (in one form or another) has been celebrated each February in the United States. But how much do you know about this annual observance?

Origins

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of what is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), began the practice by announcing that “Negro History Week” would occur in February 1926. He chose this time of the year because the week would include the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.  Both birthdays already had a tradition of being celebrated in Black communities at the time, and he wanted to use this opportunity to extend the positive focus on the history and achievements of this group.

In 1975, after President Gerald R. Ford issued a message recognizing “the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by black citizens,” ASALH expanded Negro History Week to a month-long celebration. The following year, President Ford again endorsed the event, but it was not officially recognized by Congress until ten years later when Public Law 99-244 designated February 1986 as “National Black (Afro-American) History Month.”

Annual Theme

Each year, the ASALH announces a theme for that year’s Black History Month. Recent themes have included “Black Health and Wellness” and “Black Resistance.” This year, the theme is “African Americans and Labor.” As expanded upon at their website, ASALH sees this as an opportunity to study how all types of work: “free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary” have intersected with Black lives, culture, history, and the building of shared communities.

Black History Month in 2025

In 2025, many companies and federal agencies cancelled or downplayed their observance of Black History Month due to President Trump’s stated intent of halting DEI initiatives. However, as he had done at the start of his first term in 2017, on January 31, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation recognizing February as Black History Month.

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October is LGBTQ+ History Month

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October? Don’t you mean Pride Month in June? No! There are two different month-long celebrations of LGBTQ+ people in the United States.

LGBTQ+ History Month first started in 1994. Rodney Wilson, a high school teacher, chose October because the first and second LGBT Marches on Washington were in October, and National Coming Out Day is October 11th. He also chose it because it was during the traditional school year! In 1995, the National Education Association included “LGBT History Month” in its list of commemorative months –— to great backlash –— and yet, that recognition helped spread the idea of this new “history month” idea.

A decade later, in 2006, Philadelphia’s Equality Forum created a website highlighting and celebrating the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people one for every day of the month of October. They update it every year so that more and more LGBTQ+ “icons” can have positive attention drawn to them and their accomplishments (589 so far!). The inaugural year included author James Baldwin, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, actor Ian McKellen, and athlete Sheryl Swoopes.

Conversely, Pride Month arises from the first Pride march in New York City which was held on June 28, 1970, the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. That march became an annual tradition in New York City, and slowly other Pride marches were held in other locations in the United States. President Bill Clinton issued a presidential proclamation in 1999 establishing June as “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” Since then Pride Month has spread across the globe.

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