How Black History Month Came To Be, And Why It's More Important Than Ever
By Alvin H. Green IV
Courtesy of Getty Images
As corporations and colleges across the country backpedal on DEI efforts, and the Trump Administration tears down Civil Rights and Liberties, we must never forget how hard it was for February to become Black History Month.
It started out with the founding of ‘Negro History Week’ in 1928, with historian Carter G. Woodson aligning it with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Woodson first founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915, and in 1916, he published one of the earliest scholarly journals about African American history, The Journal of African American History. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration and with pressure from the ASALH, President Gerald Ford officially declared February Black History Month. It is important to note that BHM was not just about learning fun facts about our ancestors, but educating each other on part of our history that may have been forgotten by time or suppressed by our oppressors.
And since time is a wheel that never stops spinning, another age of oppression might me upon us. According to an Axios article, the Trump Admin has deleted over 6,700 federal datasets involving issues like death during childbirth, sickle cell, and poor living conditions in “historically redlined neighborhoods.” They have also altered or removed plaques in multiple national parks outlining slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans. In this way, they are trying to fracture and dilute our history into something more tolerable for them.
"I've seen this movie before," said current President of the National Urban League, Marc H. Morial, to Axios. "In the '60s, they stood up. In the 2020s, we've got to stand up." Morial, who grew up threatened by the KKK during the Civil Rights Era, went on to state “...the American Dream is being stolen, [and] we're on the brink of tyranny and authoritarianism.
On July 4th, 2026, America will officially be 250 years old. And on August 25th, 1619, the first enslaved Africans landed in Point Comfort. For around 407 years, African Americans have been doing the work that built this country and have been punished routinely for it. American slavery was officially abolished in 1865, but our people were continually held in bondage after that, first by the sharecropper system and then by Jim Crow Laws. And 160 years after the abolition of slavery, one could argue that the modern prison system is designed to enslave African Americans and other minorities legally.
While the fight has been long and hard, and the journey tumultuous, African Americans have persevered and expanded the pride once solely contained to February all throughout the year.
