The origin of Black History acknowledgement

Black History Month was created to ensure that the contributions, struggles, and achievements of Black Americans—long ignored or distorted in mainstream education—were formally recognized and studied. Its origins trace back to historian Carter G. Woodson, who in 1926 established Negro History Week through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now ASALH). Woodson, the second Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard, believed that the exclusion of Black history from textbooks reinforced racism and robbed Black communities of historical pride and context. He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, figures already commemorated in Black communities. Over the decades, Negro History Week gained momentum through schools, churches, and civic organizations, especially during the Civil Rights Movement, when demands for racial justice fueled broader interest in reclaiming Black history. In 1976, amid the U.S. Bicentennial, the celebration was officially expanded to Black History Month, endorsed by President Gerald Ford, who urged Americans to honor the “too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans.” What began as a corrective measure against historical erasure became an annual reminder of how deeply Black history is woven into American history—born from activism, scholarship, and the insistence that visibility and truth matter.