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Black History Month is an annual celebration of African-American history and contributions in the formation of the modern US.
February is celebrated as Black History Month (BHM), which highlights African-American history and the contributions of Black people in the United States.
It has been almost 100 years since Carter G Woodson, known as “the father of Black history”, started Negro History Week in 1926, which set the stage for what is now known as Black History Month. The annual event is now observed across several countries.
What is Black History Month?
In the US, BHM is normally celebrated around a theme with activities at universities, schools, museums and the like. This year’s theme is the contribution of African Americans to art.
These contributions are vast, from stoneware jars made by enslaved people to the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, from the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s to the creation of music, including jazz, rock and hip-hop.
African-American contributions to the arts date back hundreds of years during the times of American slavery with the creation of the banjo, which descended from West African instruments. Slavery was abolished in the US in 1865, but deep-seated anti-Black sentiment continued pushing Black culture and history to the margins of American society.
The recognition of Black history is not just limited to the US. Canada also observes Black History Month in February, and the United Kingdom and Ireland celebrate Black History Month in October.
How did Black History Month originate?
Woodson, the Black author, chose February because Frederick Douglas, an American abolitionist who escaped from slavery at the age of 20, and Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the US, were both born in February. Lincoln is crediting with banning slavery at the end of the Civil War.
Moreover, at the time when Woodson advanced the idea in the early 20th century, the legacy of both figures had broad appeal and cultural relevance in the US.
The shift from a week to a month began in two places around the same time. In Chicago, Frederic H Hammurabi Robb, a student activist founded the House of Knowledge cultural centre and used that institution to build a community around advancing the idea of moving Negro History Week to Negro History Month. Due to Woodson’s influence in his home state of West Virginia, African Americans there started to celebrate February as Negro History Month.
The momentum from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which campaigned against racial segregation and disenfranchisement of Black people, would play a critical role in raising awareness of Black history in universities and civil rights organisations.
