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Black History Month 2022

February is Black History Month in the U.S., and this year's theme is Black Health and Wellness. NPR has compiled a list of stories, music performances, podcasts and other content that chronicles the Black American experience.

Here's the story behind Black History Month — and why it's celebrated in February

Jonathan Franklin

At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias. Warren K Leffler/Universal History Archive/Getty Images hide caption

At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias.

Every February, the U.S. honors the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who have helped shape the nation. Black History Month celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of our country's history.

This year's theme, Black Health and Wellness , pays homage to medical scholars and health care providers. The theme is especially timely as we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected minority communities and placed unique burdens on Black health care professionals.

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"There is no American history without African American history," said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. The Black experience, she said, is embedded in "everything we think of as 'American history.' "

First, there was Negro History Week

Critics have long argued that Black history should be taught and celebrated year-round, not just during one month each year.

It was Carter G. Woodson , the "father of Black history," who first set out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and educate people about Black history and culture, according to W. Marvin Dulaney. He is a historian and the president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ).

Woodson envisioned a weeklong celebration to encourage the coordinated teaching of Black history in public schools. He designated the second week of February as Negro History Week and galvanized fellow historians through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915. (ASNLH later became ASALH.)

The idea wasn't to place limitations but really to focus and broaden the nation's consciousness.

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was an American historian, a scholar and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson was instrumental in launching Negro History Week in 1926. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images hide caption

"Woodson's goal from the very beginning was to make the celebration of Black history in the field of history a 'serious area of study,' " said Albert Broussard, a professor of Afro-American history at Texas A&M University.

The idea eventually grew in acceptance, and by the late 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the U.S. were pivotal to the change.

Colleges and universities also began to hold commemorations, with Kent State University being one of the first, according to Kaplan.

Fifty years after the first celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month during the country's 1976 bicentennial. Ford called upon Americans to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history," History.com reports .

Why February was chosen as Black History Month

February was chosen primarily because the second week of the month coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was influential in the emancipation of slaves , and Douglass, a former slave, was a prominent leader in the abolitionist movement , which fought to end slavery.

Lincoln and Douglass were each born in the second week of February, so it was traditionally a time when African Americans would hold celebrations in honor of emancipation, Kaplan said. (Douglass' exact date of birth wasn't recorded, but he came to celebrate it on Feb. 14.)

Thus, Woodson created Negro History Week around the two birthdays as a way of "commemorating the black past," according to ASALH .

Forty years after Ford formally recognized Black History Month, it was Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, who delivered a message of his own from the White House, a place built by slaves.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host the annual reception for Black History Month at the White House on Feb. 18, 2016. Mike Theiler/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

"Black History Month shouldn't be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history or somehow just boiled down to a compilation of greatest hits from the March on Washington or from some of our sports heroes," Obama said.

"It's about the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high and low, famous and obscure, and how those experiences have shaped and challenged and ultimately strengthened America," he continued.

(Canada also commemorates Black History Month in February, while the U.K. and Ireland celebrate it in October.)

There's a new theme every year

ASALH designates a new theme for Black History Month each year, in keeping with the practice Woodson established for Negro History Week.

This year's Black Health and Wellness theme is particularly appropriate, Dulaney said, as the U.S. continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

"As [Black people], we have terrible health outcomes, and even the coronavirus has been affecting us disproportionately in terms of those of us who are catching it," Dulaney said.

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"There's never been a time where Black people and others should not celebrate Black history," Broussard said. "Given the current racial climate, the racial reckoning that began in wake of George Floyd's murder ... this is an opportunity to learn."

NPR has compiled a list of stories, performances and other content that chronicles the Black American experience for Black History Month. See the whole collection here.

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Knowing the Past Opens the Door to the Future: The Continuing Importance of Black History Month

No one has played a greater role in helping all Americans know the black past than Carter G. Woodson, the individual who created Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. Woodson was the second black American to receive a PhD in history from Harvard—following W.E.B. Du Bois by a few years. To Woodson, the black experience was too important simply to be left to a small group of academics. Woodson believed that his role was to use black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift. By 1916, Woodson had moved to DC and established the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and Culture,” an organization whose goal was to make black history accessible to a wider audience. Woodson was a strange and driven man whose only passion was history, and he expected everyone to share his passion.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, late 1940s

This impatience led Woodson to create Negro History Week in 1926, to ensure that school children be exposed to black history. Woodson chose the second week of February in order to celebrate the birthday of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is important to realize that Negro History Week was not born in a vacuum. The 1920s saw the rise in interest in African American culture that was represented by the Harlem Renaissance where writers like Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglass Johnson, Claude McKay—wrote about the joys and sorrows of blackness, and musicians like Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Lunceford captured the new rhythms of the cities created in part by the thousands of southern blacks who migrated to urban centers like Chicago. And artists like Aaron Douglass, Richmond Barthé, and Lois Jones created images that celebrated blackness and provided more positive images of the African American experience.

Woodson hoped to build upon this creativity and further stimulate interest through Negro History Week. Woodson had two goals. One was to use history to prove to white America that blacks had played important roles in the creation of America and thereby deserve to be treated equally as citizens. In essence, Woodson—by celebrating heroic black figures—be they inventors, entertainers, or soldiers—hoped to prove our worth, and by proving our worth—he believed that equality would soon follow. His other goal was to increase the visibility of black life and history, at a time when few newspapers, books, and universities took notice of the black community, except to dwell upon the negative. Ultimately Woodson believed Negro History Week—which became Black History Month in 1976—would be a vehicle for racial transformation forever.

The question that faces us today is whether or not Black History Month is still relevant? Is it still a vehicle for change? Or has it simply become one more school assignment that has limited meaning for children. Has Black History Month become a time when television and the media stack their black material? Or is it a useful concept whose goals have been achieved? After all, few—except the most ardent rednecks - could deny the presence and importance of African Americans to American society or as my then-14 year old daughter Sarah put it, “I see Colin Powell everyday on TV, all my friends—black and white—are immersed in black culture through music and television. And America has changed dramatically since 1926—Is not it time to retire Black History Month as we have eliminated white and colored signs on drinking fountains?” I will spare you the three hour lesson I gave her.

I would like to suggest that despite the profound change in race relations that has occurred in our lives, Carter G. Woodson’s vision for black history as a means of transformation and change is still quite relevant and quite useful. African American history month, with a bit of tweaking, is still a beacon of change and hope that is still surely needed in this world. The chains of slavery are gone—but we are all not yet free. The great diversity within the black community needs the glue of the African American past to remind us of not just how far we have traveled but lo, how far there is to go.

While there are many reasons and examples that I could point towards, let me raise five concerns or challenges that African Americans — in fact — all Americans — face that black history can help address:

The Challenge of Forgetting

You can tell a great deal about a country and a people by what they deem important enough to remember, to create moments for — what they put in their museum and what they celebrate. In Scandinavia — there are monuments to the Vikings as a symbol of freedom and the spirit of exploration. In Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis celebrated their supposed Aryan supremacy through monument and song. While America traditionally revels in either Civil War battles or founding fathers. Yet I would suggest that we learn even more about a country by what it chooses to forget — its mistakes, its disappointments, and its embarrassments. In some ways, African American History month is a clarion call to remember. Yet it is a call that is often unheeded.

Let’s take the example of one of the great unmentionable in American history — slavery. For nearly 250 years slavery not only existed but it was one of the dominant forces in American life. Political clout and economic fortune depended on the labor of slaves. And the presence of this peculiar institution generated an array of books, publications, and stories that demonstrate how deeply it touched America. And while we can discuss basic information such as the fact that in 1860 — 4 million blacks were enslaved, and that a prime field hand cost $1,000, while a female, with her childbearing capability, brought $1,500, we find few moments to discuss the impact, legacy, and contemporary meaning of slavery.

In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution, about to open an exhibition that included slavery, decided to survey 10,000 Americans. The results were fascinating — 92% of white respondents felt slavery had little meaning to them — these respondents often said “my family did not arrive until after the end of slavery.” Even more disturbing was the fact that 79% of African Americans expressed no interest or some embarrassment about slavery. It is my hope that with greater focus and collaboration Black History Month can stimulate discussion about a subject that both divides and embarrasses.

As a historian, I have always felt that slavery is an African American success story because we found ways to survive, to preserve our culture and our families. Slavery is also ripe with heroes, such as slaves who ran away or rebelled, like Harriet Tubman or Denmark Vessey, but equally important are the forgotten slave fathers and mothers who raised families and kept a people alive. I am not embarrassed by my slave ancestors; I am in awe of their strength and their humanity. I would love to see the African American community rethink its connection to our slave past. I also think of something told to me by a Mr. Johnson, who was a former sharecropper I interviewed in Georgetown, SC:

Though the slaves were bought, they were also brave. Though they were sold, they were also strong.

The Challenge of Preserving a People’s Culture

While the African American community is no longer invisible, I am unsure that as a community we are taking the appropriate steps to ensure the preservation of African American cultural patrimony in appropriate institutions. Whether we like it or not, museums, archives, and libraries not only preserves culture they legitimize it. Therefore, it is incumbent of African Americans to work with cultural institutions to preserve their family photography, documents, and objects. While African Americans have few traditions of giving material to museums, it is crucial that more of the black past make it into American cultural repositories.

A good example is the Smithsonian, when the National Museum of American History wanted to mount an exhibition on slavery, it found it did not have any objects that described slavery. That is partially a response to a lack of giving by the African American Community. This lack of involvement also affects the preservation of black historic sites. Though there has been more attention paid to these sites, too much of our history has been paved over, gone through urban renewal, gentrified, or unidentified, or un-acknowledged. Hopefully a renewed Black History Month can focus attention on the importance of preserving African American culture.

There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.

The Challenge of Maintaining a Community

As the African American Community diversifies and splinters, it is crucial to find mechanisms and opportunities to maintain our sense of community. As some families lose the connection with their southern roots, it is imperative that we understand our common heritage and history. The communal nature of black life has provided substance, guidance, and comfort for generations. And though our communities are quite diverse, it is our common heritage that continues to hold us together.

The Power of Inspiration

One thing has not changed. That is the need to draw inspiration and guidance from the past. And through that inspiration, people will find tools and paths that will help them live their lives. Who could not help but be inspired by Martin Luther King’s oratory, commitment to racial justice, and his ultimate sacrifice. Or by the arguments of William and Ellen Craft or Henry “Box” Brown who used great guile to escape from slavery. Who could not draw substance from the creativity of Madame CJ Walker or the audacity and courage of prize fighter Jack Johnson. Or who could not continue to struggle after listening to the mother of Emmitt Till share her story of sadness and perseverance. I know that when life is tough, I take solace in the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, or Gwendolyn Brooks. And I find comfort in the rhythms of Louie Armstrong, Sam Cooke or Dinah Washington. And I draw inspiration from the anonymous slave who persevered so that the culture could continue.

Let me conclude by re-emphasizing that Black History Month continues to serve us well. In part because Woodson’s creation is as much about today as it is about the past. Experiencing Black History Month every year reminds us that history is not dead or distant from our lives.

Rather, I see the African American past in the way my daughter’s laugh reminds me of my grandmother. I experience the African American past when I think of my grandfather choosing to leave the South rather than continue to experience share cropping and segregation. Or when I remember sitting in the back yard listening to old men tell stories. Ultimately, African American History — and its celebration throughout February — is just as vibrant today as it was when Woodson created it 85 years ago. Because it helps us to remember there is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.

Lonnie Bunch Founding Director

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Black History Month: What is it and why is it important?

Black History Month is an opportunity to understand Black histories. Image:  Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

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This article was originally published in February 2021 and has been updated .

• A continued engagement with history is vital as it helps give context for the present.
• Black History Month is an opportunity to understand Black histories, going beyond stories of racism and slavery to spotlight Black achievement.
• This year's theme is African Americans and the Arts.

February is Black History Month. This month-long observance in the US and Canada is a chance to celebrate Black achievement and provide a fresh reminder to take stock of where systemic racism persists and give visibility to the people and organizations creating change. Here's what to know about Black History Month and how to celebrate it this year:

Have you read?

Black history month: key events in a decade of black lives matter, here are 4 ways businesses can celebrate black history month, how did black history month begin.

Black History Month's first iteration was Negro History Week, created in February 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, known as the "father of Black history." This historian helped establish the field of African American studies and his organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History , aimed to encourage " people of all ethnic and social backgrounds to discuss the Black experience ".

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” ― Carter G. Woodson

His organization was later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and is currently the oldest historical society established for the promotion of African American history.

Why is Black History Month in February?

February was chosen by Woodson for the week-long observance as it coincides with the birthdates of both former US President Abraham Lincoln and social reformer Frederick Douglass. Both men played a significant role in helping to end slavery. Woodson also understood that members of the Black community already celebrated the births of Douglass and Lincoln and sought to build on existing traditions. "He was asking the public to extend their study of Black history, not to create a new tradition", as the ASALH explained on its website.

How did Black History Month become a national month of celebration?

By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil-rights movement and a growing awareness of Black identity, Negro History Week was celebrated by mayors in cities across the country. Eventually, the event evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History month. In his speech, President Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history”.

Since his administration, every American president has recognized Black History Month and its mission. But it wasn't until Congress passed "National Black History Month" into law in 1986 that many in the country began to observe it formally. The law aimed to make all Americans "aware of this struggle for freedom and equal opportunity".

Why is Black History Month celebrated?

Initially, Black History Month was a way of teaching students and young people about Black and African-Americans' contributions. Such stories had been largely forgotten and were a neglected part of the national narrative.

Now, it's seen as a celebration of those who've impacted not just the country but the world with their activism and achievements. In the US, the month-long spotlight during February is an opportunity for people to engage with Black histories, go beyond discussions of racism and slavery, and highlight Black leaders and accomplishments.

What is this year's Black History Month theme?

Every year, a theme is chosen by the ASALH, the group originally founded by Woodson. This year's theme, African Americans and the Arts .

"In the fields of visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary and other forms of cultural expression, the African American influence has been paramount," the website says.

Is Black History Month celebrated anywhere else?

In Canada, they celebrate it in February. In countries like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Ireland, they celebrate it in October. In Canada, African-Canadian parliament member Jean Augustine motioned for Black History Month in 1995 to bring awareness to Black Canadians' work.

When the UK started celebrating Black History Month in 1987, it focused on Black American history. Over time there has been more attention on Black British history. Now it is dedicated to honouring African people's contributions to the country. Its UK mission statement is: "Dig deeper, look closer, think bigger".

Why is Black History Month important?

For many modern Black millennials, the month-long celebration for Black History Month offers an opportunity to reimagine what possibilities lie ahead. But for many, the forces that drove Woodson nearly a century ago are more relevant than ever. As Lonnie G. Bunch III, Director of the Smithsonian Institution said at the opening of the Washington D.C.'s National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016: “There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honouring our struggle and ancestors by remembering".

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Celebrating Black History With The New York Times

Recent and archival articles, essays, photographs, videos, infographics, writing prompts, lesson plans and more.

By The Learning Network

Below, a collection of Times articles, essays, photographs, videos, infographics and more that can help bring the wealth of Black history and culture into your classroom.

We begin with links to historic Times front pages, from the Dred Scott decision of 1857 through the civil rights movement and on to the election of Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to be elected vice president of the United States, and the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Below that, you’ll find a selection of more recent pieces from across Times sections on Black history and contemporary culture, including a section featuring the “Black History, Continued” series and “The 1619 Project.” Finally, we list some of our own recent related Learning Network lesson plans and writing prompts in the hopes that they inspire further reading, writing and discussion.

Our list is long, yes, but we also know it’s not nearly complete. Are there important pieces about Black history that you teach with? Please let us know in the comments.

Here’s what you'll find below:

Historic headlines, special new york times projects, selected recent reporting and multimedia, learning network lessons, writing prompts and films.

Archival articles that document key moments in Black history, and give us a glimpse into the time period in which they unfolded.

Historic Front Pages

Selected front pages and articles from The Learning Network’s “ On This Day ” feature which ran from 1999 to 2014. Please note that historic front pages published after that include a link to the front page and the original digital article.

1857 | Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case

1863 | President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

1947 | Dodgers Purchase Robinson, First Negro in Modern Major League Baseball

1954 | High Court Bans School Segregation; 9-to-0 Decision Grants Time to Comply

1956 | High Court Rules Bus Segregation Unconstitutional

1957 | Arkansas Troops Bar Negro Pupils; Governor Defiant

1957 | President Sends Troops to Little Rock, Federalizes Arkansas National Guard; Tells Nation He Acted to Avoid An Anarchy

1957 | Miss Gibson Wimbledon Victor

1960 | Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear Of Wider Unrest in South

1961 | 400 U.S. Marshals Sent to Alabama as Montgomery Bus Riots Hurt 20; President Bids State Keep Order

1963 | Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church; Riots Flare; 2 Boys Slain

1963 | Mississippi Gives Meredith Degree

1963 | 200,000 March for Civil Rights in Orderly Washington Rally

1964 | 3 In Rights Drive Reported Missing

1964 | Civil Rights Bill Passed, 73-27; Johnson Urges All To Comply; Dirksen Berates Goldwater

1964 | Martin Luther King Wins The Nobel Prize for Peace

1965 | New Negro Riots Erupt on Coast; 3 Reported Shot

1965 | The Big Parade: On the Way to Montgomery

1965 | 25,000 Go to Alabama’s Capitol

1965 | Malcolm X Shot to Death at Rally Here

1967 | President Sees Marshall Take Supreme Court Seat

1968 | Martin Luther King is Slain in Memphis

1968 | 2 Black Power Advocates Ousted From Olympics

1971 | Supreme Court, 9-0, Backs Busing to Combat South’s Dual Schools, Rejecting Administration Stand

1975 | Ashe Triumphs at Wimbledon

1991 | Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.

1992 | Los Angeles Policemen Acquitted In Taped Beating

2008 | Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls

2013 | Prayer, Anger and Protests Greet Verdict in Florida Case ( Article )

2014 | Protests in Ferguson, Mo. ( Article )

2015 | Races Unite for Nine Killed by Gunman at Black Church ( Article )

2020 | Two Crises Convulse a Nation: A Pandemic and Police Violence ( Article )

2020 | Kamala Harris Makes History as First Woman and Woman of Color as Vice President ( Article )

2022 | Jackson Confirmed as First Black Woman to Sit on Supreme Court ( Article )

From Our Historic Headlines Collection

Selected articles from The Learning Network’s 2011 “ Historic Headlines ” collection that connects famous historical events to recent news.

Jan. 13, 1990 | L. Douglas Wilder Becomes First Elected Black Governor in U.S.

Feb. 1, 1960 | Black Students and the Greensboro Sit-In

Feb. 21, 1965 | Malcolm X Is Assassinated by Black Muslims

Feb. 29, 1968 | Kerner Commission Reports on U.S. Racial Inequality

March 6, 1857 | Supreme Court Issues Dred Scott Decision

March 7, 1965 | Civil Rights Marchers Attacked in Selma

March 15, 1965 | President Johnson Calls for Passage of Voting Rights Act

April 4, 1968 | The Assassination of Martin Luther King

April 20, 1971 | Supreme Court Rules That Busing Can Be Used to Integrate Schools

May 17, 1954 | Supreme Court Declares School Segregation Unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education

May 1, 1992 | Rodney King Asks, ‘Can We All Get Along?’

June 21, 1964 | Three Civil Rights Workers Missing

July 5, 1975 | Arthur Ashe Becomes First Black Man to Win Wimbledon

July 6, 1957 | Althea Gibson Becomes First Black Player to Win Wimbledon

Aug. 11, 1965 | Riots in the Watts Section of Los Angeles

Aug. 18, 1963 | James Meredith Graduates From Mississippi

Sept. 15, 1963 | Birmingham Church Is Bombed by Klansmen

Oct. 14, 1964 | Martin Luther King Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Oct. 18, 1968 | American Olympic Medal Winners Suspended for Black Power Salutes

Nov. 4, 2008 | Obama Is Elected President

Throwback Thursday | The Rodney King Verdict and the L.A. Riots

Throwback Thursday | Rosa Parks Refuses to Move to the Back of the Bus

These projects explore Black history in depth and from a variety of angles — connecting history to the present.

Progress, Revisited

Selected pieces from a new series from Headway that explores how measures of Black achievement in the U.S. have stalled or reversed, and looks back at historical gains for their lessons today.

The Elusive Quest for Black Progress

How the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike Changed the Labor Movement

How Greenwood Grew a Thriving Black Economy

Three Days That Changed the Thinking About Black Women’s Health

Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release

Black History, Continued

Selected pieces from Black History, Continued and our related curriculum. The 2021 series explores pivotal moments and transformative figures in Black culture and examines how the past shapes the present and the future.

Our Curriculum

Learning With the ‘Black History, Continued’ Series

On-Demand Webinar: Teaching With ‘Black History, Continued’

Writing Prompt: How Much Have You Learned About Black History?

Lesson of the Day: ‘When Blackness Is a Superpower’

Lesson of the Day: ‘The Black Woman Artist Who Crafted a Life She Was Told She Couldn’t Have’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Bringing Black History to Life in the Great Outdoors’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Black Surfers Reclaim Their Place on the Waves’

Lesson of the Day: ‘What Is Black Love Today?’

Teaching About the Tulsa Race Massacre With The New York Times

Additional Pieces

A Record Number of Black Women Run Some of the Biggest U.S. Cities

How Black Foragers Find Freedom in the Natural World

Why Students Are Choosing H.B.C.U.s: ‘4 Years Being Seen as Family’

The Joy of Black Hair

The Black Nerds Redefining the Culture

How Can Blackness Construct America?

Do We Ask Too Much of Black Heroes?

The Essential Toni Morrison

The 1619 Project

Selected pieces from The 1619 Project , an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Essays From The New York Times Magazine

Why We Published the 1619 Project , by Jake Silverstein

The Idea of America , by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Capitalism , by Matthew Desmond

A Broken Health Care System , by Jeneen Interlandi

Traffic , by Kevin M. Kruse

Undemocratic Democracy , by Jamelle Bouie

Medical Inequality , by Linda Villarosa

American Popular Music , by Wesley Morris

Sugar , by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Mass Incarceration , by Bryan Stevenson

The Wealth Gap , by Trymaine Lee

Hope, a Photo Essay , by Djeneba Aduayom

400 Years: A Literary Timeline

Why Can’t We Teach This? by Nikita Stewart

A Brief History of Slavery , by Mary Elliott and Jazmine Hughes

The 1619 Podcast

Related Pieces

How the 1619 Project Came Together

Is Slavery’s Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sports?

Stories From Slavery, Shared Over Generations

We Respond to the Historians Who Critiqued The 1619 Project

The 1619 Project Curriculum (Pulitzer Center)

“The 1619 Project” docuseries on Hulu

Recent articles, essays, photos, obituaries, photos and graphics on Black history and contemporary culture.

Articles on Culture, Sports, Science and the Arts

How Hip-Hop Changed the English Language Forever

How Hip-Hop Conquered the World

A Silvery, Shimmering Summer of Beyoncé

The Great Experiment That Is ‘The Color Purple’

Norman Lear Reshaped How America Saw Black Families

The First 10 Words of the African American English Dictionary Are In

The Blind Side of Sports Storytelling

A Negro Leagues Star Is Still Sharing His Story

Michael Jordan Was an Activist After All

How ‘Weathering’ Contributes to Racial Health Disparities

The Toll of Police Violence on Black People’s Mental Health

Black Artists Say A.I. Shows Bias, With Algorithms Erasing Their History

How Unconscious Bias in Health Care Puts Pregnant Black Women at Higher Risk

Two Chefs on Keeping Alive, and Redefining, Soul Food

Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance

The African-American Art Shaping the 21st Century

Why We’re Capitalizing Black

Seven Black Inventors Whose Patents Helped Shape American Life

The Most Important Decade for Movies About Black Lives

Why Won’t Blackface Go Away? It’s Part of America’s Troubled Cultural Legacy

28 Days, 28 Films for Black History Month

Love and Black Lives, in Pictures Found on a Brooklyn Street

The National Museum Of African-American History And Culture: I, Too, Sing America

Edna Lewis and the Black Roots of American Cooking

Articles on History, Politics, Education and Business

Inside the College Board’s Revised African American Studies Curriculum

One Black Family, One Affirmative Action Ruling, and Lots of Thoughts

Florida Scoured Math Textbooks for ‘Prohibited Topics.’ Next Up: Social Studies.

Hate Crimes Reported in Schools Nearly Doubled Between 2018 and 2022

8 Places Across the U.S. That Illuminate Black History

‘I Have a Dream,’ Yesterday and Today

The Home of Carter G. Woodson, the Man Behind Black History Month

America’s Black Cemeteries and Three Women Trying to Save Them

A New Front in Reparations: Seeking the Return of Lost Family Land

How the Voting Rights Act, Newly Challenged, Has Long Been Under Attack

‘The Justins’ Follow a Legacy of Resistance in Tennessee

Juneteenth: The History of a Holiday

Teachers Tackle Black History Month, Under New Restrictions

Revitalizing Black Neighborhoods by Preserving Their History

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation

Welcome to Homecoming!

Meet the Brave but Overlooked Women of Color Who Fought for the Vote

What Is Owed

Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside

Emmett Till’s Murder, and How America Remembers Its Darkest Moments

1.5 Million Missing Black Men

Found: Rosa Parks’s Arrest Warrant, and More Traces of Civil Rights History

President Obama’s Farewell Address: Full Video and Text

New Databases Offer Insights Into the Lives of Escaped Slaves

Opinion Essays

Yes, Kwanzaa Is Made Up. That’s Why It’s Great

Who’s Afraid of Black History?

How Does Diversity Actually Work at College? We Asked 10 Young Black Americans.

How the Underground Railroad Got Its Name

The Forgotten Radicalism of the March on Washington

Martin Luther King Jr. Wasn’t a Lone Messiah

Why We Have to Reckon With the Real Malcolm X

Genuine Progress Is the Ability to Be Black and Stumble

Tyre Nichols’s Death Is America’s Shame

My Hair Was Always a Source of Tension Between My Mother and Me. Then We Met Charlotte.

Rodeo Is Turning America’s Whitest Big City Black

What Canceling Student Debt Would Do for the Racial Wealth Gap

The True Meaning of Juneteenth

Black History Month Is About Seeing America Clearly

When Everyone Around You Is Talking About the End, Talk About Black History

Black Valedictorians and the Toxic Trope of Black Exceptionalism

The Real Rosa Parks Story Is Better Than the Fairy Tale

We Need a Second Great Migration

Racism’s Hidden Toll

A ‘Glorious Poetic Rage’

This Black History Month’s Lesson: Joy

It Was Never About Busing

Brent Staples’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Work at The Times

I’m Not Here to Answer Your Black History Month Questions

The ‘Lost Cause’ That Built Jim Crow

Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Cancellation of Colin Kaepernick

The Cultural Canon Is Better Than Ever

Who First Showed Us That Black Lives Matter?

How Black America Saw Obama

The Authentic Power of Michelle Obama

Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Restoring Black History

How to Stay Sane While Black

Remember Langston Hughes’s Anger Alongside His Joy

Selected Obituaries

Remarkable Black Men and Women We Overlooked

For Martin Luther King’s Birthday, Black Leaders as Obituaries Portrayed Them

Recent Notable Deaths

Harry Belafonte

Tina Turner

Chadwick Boseman

C.T. Vivian

Kobe Bryant

Toni Morrison

Scenes From Juneteenth: America’s Newest Holiday, 156 Years in the Making

Heirlooms, Redefined

How Black Lives Matter Reached Every Corner of America

From The Times’s Photo Vault, the Many Dimensions of Jackie Robinson

50 Years After Their Mug Shots, Portraits of Mississippi’s Freedom Riders

Loving, 50 Years Later

African-American History Seen Through an African-American Lens

A Look at the Heart-Wrenching Moments From Equal Rights Battles

Using Photography to Tell Stories About Race

The World According to Black Women Photographers

An Elegant, Lyrical Look at Black Lives by Black Photographers

The Lasting Power of Emmett Till’s Image

From Slavery to Freedom: Revealing the Underground Railroad

Understanding Race and History Through Photography

A Last Look at Ebony’s Archives, Before They’re Sold

Unpublished Black History

Unpublished: Sports and Black History

Times Photographs of the Civil Rights Era

Our site has been publishing lesson plans and student resources since 1998. Those chosen for this collection are from 2014 or later. See our Race, Racism and Racial Justice Resources spotlight for more.

Some Recent Lesson Plans

Lessons based on Times articles that explore Black history and culture

Lesson Plan: ‘Octavia Butler’s Science Fiction Predicted the World We Live In’

8 Ways to Teach and Learn About Hip-Hop

Lesson Plan: ‘An American Puzzle: Fitting Race in a Box’

Lesson Plan: The End of Race-Based Affirmative Action in College Admissions

A Teacher-Created Unit on Race and Racism Using The New York Times

Lesson Plan: The Debate Over the Teaching of U.S. History

Lesson of the Day: ‘A Call to Remember the 200,000 Black Troops Who Helped Save the Union’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Tour a House Full of Black History’

Lesson of the Day: ‘How a National Movement Toppled Hundreds of Confederate Symbols’

Lesson of the Day: ‘A Civil Rights Pioneer Seeks to Have Her Record Cleared’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Critical Race Theory: A Brief History’

Five Ways to Learn About Juneteenth With The New York Times

Lesson of the Day: ‘Four Studies of Black Healing’

Lesson of the Day: ‘As New Police Reform Laws Sweep Across the U.S., Some Ask: Are They Enough?’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Two Biden Priorities, Climate and Inequality, Meet on Black-Owned Farms’

Lesson of the Day: ‘A Teenager Was Bullied. His Ancestors Saved Him.’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Dr. Seuss Books Are Pulled, and a “Cancel Culture” Controversy Erupts’

Resources for Teaching About Race and Racism With The New York Times and an on-demand webinar

Lesson of the Day: ‘What Students Are Saying About Race and Racism in America’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Black, Deaf and Extremely Online’

Lesson of the Day: Amanda Gorman and ‘The Hill We Climb’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Listen Up: These Young Black Poets Have a Message’

Lesson of the Day: ‘How Black Lives Matter Reached Every Corner of America’

Teaching Ideas and Resources to Help Students Make Sense of the George Floyd Protests

Learning About Slavery With Primary Sources

Lesson of the Day: ‘Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.’

Lesson of the Day: ‘Can Biology Class Reduce Racism?’

Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality

‘Her Subject Is America’: Teaching Toni Morrison With The New York Times

Moving On Up: Teaching With the Data of Economic Mobility

25 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students

First Encounters With Race and Racism: Teaching Ideas for Classroom Conversations

Equality Under the Law? Investigating Race and the Justice System

Teaching and Learning About Martin Luther King Jr. With The New York Times

Front Page History: Teaching About Selma Using Original Times Reporting

Reader Idea | Reading Langston Hughes and Charles Blow With Youth in Detention

Reader Idea | A Mural Project Inspired by New York Times Columns on Race

Guest Post | Ideas for Student Civic Action in a Time of Social Uncertainty

Text to Text Series

An often-taught text paired with a Times article that echoes, extends or challenges its themes or ideas

Text to Text | ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and ‘Discrimination in Housing Against Nonwhites Persists Quietly’

Text to Text | Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem Protest and Frederick Douglass’s ‘What to the Slave is the 4th of July?’

Text to Text | ‘Why Reconstruction Matters’ and ‘Black Reconstruction in America’

Text to Text | ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names’

Text to Text | ‘What Would Malcolm X Think?’ and ‘After the Bombing’

Text to Text | ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ and ‘The Sequel’

Text to Text | ‘Little Things Are Big’ and ‘Students See Many Slights as Racial ‘Microaggressions’ ’

Text to Text | ‘I Have a Dream’ and ‘The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech’

Writing Prompts

A selection of Student Opinion questions and Picture Prompts based on Times articles and images

How Should Schools Respond to Racist Jokes?

What Is Your Reaction to the End of Race-Based Affirmative Action in College Admissions?

What Do You Think About the Controversy Surrounding the New A.P. Course on African American Studies?

The Death of Tyre Nichols: A Place for Teenagers to Respond

What Has Serena Williams Meant to Tennis, the Sports World and You?

What Is the Purpose of Teaching U.S. History?

What Does Judge Jackson’s Supreme Court Confirmation Mean to You?

What Can History Teach Us About Resilience?

Do You Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions?

Does the N.F.L. Have a Race Problem?

How Much Have You Learned About Black History?

How Diverse Is Your School?

What Is Your Reaction to Efforts to Limit Teaching on Race in Schools?

How Much Have You and Your Community Changed Since George Floyd’s Death?

Should White Writers Translate a Black Author’s Work?

Should Athletes Speak Out On Social and Political Issues?

Should We Rename Schools Named for Historical Figures With Ties to Racism, Sexism or Slavery?

How Should Racial Slurs in Literature Be Handled in the Classroom?

How Have You Learned About Slavery?

How Much Racism Do You Face in Your Daily Life?

Do You See Yourself in the Books You Read?

Does the United States Owe Reparations to the Descendants of Enslaved People?

Is Racial and Economic Diversity in Schools Important?

Is Fear of ‘The Other’ Poisoning Public Life?

Should All Americans Receive Anti-Bias Education?

How Much Power Do Books Have to Teach Young People Tolerance of Others?

What Does Dr. King’s Legacy Mean to You?

Why Is Race So Hard to Talk About?

Should Confederate Statues Be Removed or Remain in Place?

Do You Ever Talk About Issues of Race and Class With Your Friends?

Who Does Hip-Hop Belong To?

Picture Prompt | Lizzo and James Madison’s Crystal Flute

Picture Prompt| ‘You Need to Try Harder’

Picture Prompt | Confronting Stereotypes

Picture Prompt | Reading and Diversity

Film Club Films

Short documentary films with related discussion questions

Why Rappers Stopped Writing: The Punch-In Method

Fifty years into hip-hop’s constant evolution, many of today’s rappers don’t write down their lyrics at all. Here’s how they make songs now.

“I think a lot of people picture, like, modern rappers who really just, like, pen and paper in the studio, writing down their raps, figuring it out, scratching it out, changing it.” “Yeah, no, we stopped writing a long time ago. Not many people write.” “Back in the day, when people were just using tape, you just had one take. So everybody had to be on point.” “There used to be a time before the 24 track, for instance. If a singer went in, you had to sing that [expletive], top to bottom, baby. You had to have it figured out.” “Most music up until about 20 years ago was always recorded on tape. It’s more of a process. It’s a lot more laborious, a little bit more tedious.” Rapping: “Three strikes and we might just blast —” “I’ve watched Tupac giving a speech — ‘Hey, we have two hours of studio time. Come here prepared.’” “We don’t have time or the luxury to spend all of this time doing one song. We don’t have it.” “Fast forward a little bit. Word starts to spread mid-to-late 90s that Jay doesn’t actually write any of his rhymes down.” “So you literally come in the studio and then formulate sentences in your head?” “Yeah.” “And then spit it to that beat?” “Yeah.” “And you never write down the lyrics?” “Never.” “Which leads to other rappers wanting to do the same thing.” “I found out that Jay wasn’t writing. I didn’t want to ever see a pen or paper, again, in my life.” “He has class, first in the lunch line. My lunch ticket let me eat rappers at lunch time.” “What I know is, when you see your hero can jump seven feet, it makes you want to jump eight.” “If it depends on me, 10 out of 10.” “You’re telling me, you’re falling out of love with me.” “I came up at the trenches.” “The problem is that not all of them are as great or as capable of doing it.” “Yeah, turn me up in my ear.” [rapping] “That’s no pen, no pad. They’re just going in and punching in.” “Punch in.” “Punch method.” “Punch and recording.” “Punching three more bars.” “I ain’t never wrote raps. I just be rapping.” “Do you write, or do you punch in?” “I punch in. I don’t write.” “Today, ProTools is essentially, like, the pen and paper, and that’s where it becomes this different type of art form.” “It’s improvisational versus writing the stand-up piece. You know what I mean?” “It’s like freehand versus tracing.” “Oh OK.” “Keep that part for me, just punch me in.” “The artist might not really have the song written, but they’re not necessarily freestyling in the traditional sense, where they’re just going in and saying the first thing that comes to mind, and they’re doing that for four minutes straight.” “Punching in, like saying one bar at a time.” “I’ve got these racks that can’t fold in the wallet. I’m making deposits. “Definitely one line at a time.” “That bar, and you said the bar out there, and you play it all together. It sounds like a whole sentence. “They’re using punching in as a way to create their rhymes as opposed to a way to correct their rhymes. Yeah, I feel it’s really just a generational thing.” “But you don’t think you could end up with something better if you sometimes wrote some stuff?” “No.” “It’s just not for you?” “No, [expletive] that.” “Rap has grown. Rap has evolved, and there’s always good and bad when it comes to evolution. What we’re seeing is a lot of the same lane being explored over and over again.” “People think, oh, they just rap about this, or they’re just rapping about, like, the easy rhyme scheme or the easy — but to be in a studio and write five songs a day, seven days a week about new topics and make it sound different, it’s very, very impressive.” “It is a sport. It is a sport to it.” “Instead of one song for a week, it’s five songs a night, and you keep it pushing.” “Not that our artistry isn’t appreciated, but it’s more so like, all right, how fast are we getting this done?” “And I’m just saying that the unprofessional rap culture is what I’m a kid of. Guys were like, I’m just a street cat, and I’ll rap.” [rapping] “I jumped off the porch and bought me a gun.” “I just want people to know that, like, you’re not Jay-Z, you’re not a failure.” “It’s about you, whether you’re writing on a phone, a piece of paper, punching in, off the dome. It doesn’t matter.” “Rapping to me, coming from, like, how I feel right then and there. Like me writing down ain’t going to be the same energy of me saying it.” “You can’t really hold your technique over a younger generation’s head, right? Ultimately, it is about just getting the best end result.” [rapping] “I respect it all because it all takes work, and it all takes thought. Whether you’re sitting over a pad or you got to spend four hours figuring it out, piecing it together, punching in, if the end, result moves people emotionally, the art is worth it.”

How a Rare Portrait of an Enslaved Child Arrived at the Met

What’s Tea?

Trayvon Martin Is Still Making America Confront Its Original Sin

Almost Famous: The Queen of Basketball

Long Island’s Enduring Black Beachfront Community

Inside the Battle Over George Floyd Square

What It Means to Be Black in America

My Father, Martin Luther King Jr., Had Another Dream

A Concerto Is a Conversation

‘Baptized in Blackness’: Why Homecoming Is Vital to the Black College Experience

Why I Won’t Teach My Son ‘Black Codes’

Almost Famous: The Lost Astronaut

Traveling While Black

How Dr. King Changed a Sanitation Worker’s Life

Taking a Knee and Taking Down A Monument

Crossing Cultures: Black K-Pop Fans in America

A Conversation With My Black Son

The Spectator

Personal Essays on Black History Month

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained educator, working with the Association for the Study of Negro Life established Black History Week – an opportunity to honor the largely unknown contributions of those of African descent and to celebrate the essence of a history that is integral to the narrative of America as apple pie. Nearly 100 years later (92 to be exact), black history in the United States remains incomplete, inauthentic and lopsided. The dominant narrative reinforces negative stereotypes and assumptions that devalue black and brown bodies in America. We are familiar with the common threads – school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration, educational achievement gaps to name a few. We are less familiar with (or perhaps less willing to acknowledge) the systemic and structural forces that sustain and lock in advantage; a self-reinforcing system that has been operating for hundreds of years. Moreover, often we recycle our praise for those commonly-known historical figures in black history; leaving a vast delta of information about the unique contributions of black people across disciplines and genres hidden, unacknowledged or forgotten. As an African American woman living in this moment, the promise and peril of what civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s referred to as “beloved community,” seems ever present. It is hard to remain hopeful in the midst of such palpable divisiveness, polarizing forces, coarse language and deeds that are antithetical to creating a society that is inclusive, loving and just. Those who fought, sacrificed, and died deserve our reverence and gratitude, for sure. Significantly, however, to honor the legacy of their contributions demands not only celebratory moments, but also recommitting ourselves to action toward building beloved community. Remembering the past is important to create pathways toward greater understanding, productive dialogue, cross-cultural trust and reconciliation. Discovering those core pieces of American history is vital to building these bridges. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a study reflecting our failure as a nation to adequately educate about the difficult and complex history of American slavery; treating slavery as an event rather than integral part of who we are as a country. We must honestly confront our shared history and its relationship to contemporary racial gaps and inequities. Any discussion toward building beloved community cannot take place without confronting the difficult history of American slavery because this history continues to shape our conceptions of race, who belongs and fairness. With Black History Month upon us, I’m mindful of the students, scholars, activists and ordinary citizens who found the courage to remain determined and engaged in the midst of great challenges, vulnerability and danger in order to demand basic human dignity and racial justice. In fact, it was college students and other young people who declared Black History as a month-long exploration rather than a week. Confining black history to a week or month is not the point. The heart of the matter for me is that context matters. This moment signifies our shared history—black history matters for all of us—the story of how America developed, prospered and created an imperfect union, one that continues to bear fruit in rich and complex ways. It’s about educating ourselves and discovering those foundational pieces and hard truths of American history like the enslavement of free people of African descent, genocidal acts like lynching, segregation and the discrimination of Jim Crow, along with the numerous contributions made by black people to the fabric of American life and culture, as well as its infrastructure and industrial capacity. We remember so others will not forget; to affirm and to build a better world. We cannot change that which we do not know and understand or for which we hold little or no respect and curiosity. This month and beyond, I will acknowledge with pride those whose efforts continue to inspire and make history—from the freedom fighters of the Civil Rights Movement (too numerous to name), the vibrancy of the Harlem Renaissance, Pauli Murray, Audre Lorde; to more contemporary history makers including Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, Ana Duvernay, Shonda Rhimes, Beyoncé, authors like Ibram Kendi and Isabel Wilkerson, Black Panther – the movie, to the official portraits of former President Obama and Michelle Obama, both created by black artists whose subjects and works will hang in the National Gallery for all time. Additionally, as CDO, I will continue to build our capacity to embed and infuse diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the strategic priorities of the institution and to cultivate more productive ways of engaging across differences. The goal is that SU is a place where we harness the power of our differences, embrace creative tension and grow together. I remain hopeful in the midst of challenging times because of the courageous citizens on this campus and beyond who are doing their part to build a more just and humane society—toward beloved community. – Natasha Martin Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion

I’m half Black, half Cuban. Growing up my father never spoke Spanish in the house and I never asked why. My father was a man that never saw color, he always believed you should “trust the soul of a man rather than the look of him.” (Remember the Titans–Coach Yoast). In Petersburg, Va., where I was born and raised, my father became the first Negro in the 60’s to drive a city bus. At the time this was unheard of. He battled his way through racism, and other challenges of negative behavior because he was the only black bus driver for Petersburg Va. Transit Co. (see cover photo). I can remember my mother telling me a story about father’s first week at work. She described it as “hell pure”. Your father pulls up and says, “good morning everyone.” The white passengers were furious and they would not board the bus. So, a group of blacks walked pass the group of white passengers and boarded the bus, deposited their fare and said, “good morning.” After a few minutes the white passengers began to board the bus. They shouted racial slurs, they spit on my father and other passengers and said “hey nigger whose bus did you steal?” as they walked passed him. On top of that, they didn’t pay their fare. When all the passengers got seated, my father put the bus in park and removed his seat belt and stood up. He wasn’t a small man. He stood tall at a height of 6ft 5inches. He began to speak to all the passengers on the bus. This is what he said, “I’m the bus driver and this my route, but if I’m the driver of this bus, you will not disrespect me, put your hands on me or spit on me. Lastly if you have a problem with what I said or I have offended you, you can just remove yourself from my bus.” He returned to his seat, fastened his seat belt, and put the bus in gear and started driving toward Downtown Petersburg. During the bus ride the atmosphere on the bus was so silent you could hear a pin drop. After about a 50-minute bus ride, the bus arrives in Downtown Petersburg. The bus comes to a stop and my father opens the door and all passengers began to exit. As white passengers walked past my father to exit the bus, they deposited their fare and shook my fathers hand and apologized to him and the last white passenger asked if they would we him see later that day, to which my father responded, “yes you will and I will get you home safe to your family.” Black History Month, to me, means a celebration of knowledge. It’s a reflection of the past, present and future in African American Culture. It’s a reminder of all the positive and innovative things that have come from our culture and how it made a huge impact on future generations. It is a time for everyone to experience culture and the roots of many things that have evolved from those of African American decent. Also it’s a time to inform everyone who may not be exposed to African American History the rest of the year. Let’s all take the time to remember the hardships and struggle, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s a remembrance of what we strive for and how the ones before us have paved a way for the things we have today. – Ricco Bland Public Safety Officer

My grandmother was the most influential person in my life until her death in 1997. Today, I draw inspiration both from her memory and the legacy of love and compassion she left behind. I experienced a safe, secure, loving childhood that occurred at the valuable intersection of two circumstances; the youth of my parents and the love of my grandmother. I was positioned to witness the broad range of painful human experiences and given a unique set of assets and blessings that allowed me the ability to develop and grow my understanding of the world I inhabit. Early in my upbringing, my grandmother introduced me to the writings of W.E.B. DuBois. And while I was not fully capable on my own of making sense of his writings as a youngster, the messages of his experiences spoke truth to my reality as I began to mature and grow in my understanding of the world around me. His words of the early 1900s still ring true for me today and underscore the significance of Black History Month in my life so I share them with you in that spirit. After the Egyptian and the Indian, the Greek and the Roman, the Teuton and the Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. (DuBois, 1903) Accordingly, Black History Month is less a month and more a movement that remains alive in me with each breath I take. It is represented in my family who gave me voice and liberated me from the poor rural up bringing that shackled so many before and after me. Black History Month is about deliverance, freedom, reframing experiences, renaming reality and retelling the truth. H. Alexander Welcome (2004) asserted: The life histories of Whites are used as the standard against which Blacks are encouraged to strive. The employment of this ontology fallaciously limits the range of Black agency, producing deceitful narratives where the navigation of the social environment by Blacks is dictated by either a passive response to, or a passive adoption of, White scripts. The utilization of whiteness to determine and/or evaluate blackness begins when whiteness and White life histories come to represent what is “right.” (p. 61) Black History is about transformation, consciousness, definition, and debunking myths and lies. It is represented in the narratives and oral histories of my ancestors told to me by my grandparents and parents and to be shared forward with my own children and the generations to come. It is about an increased understanding of the contributions of Black people throughout our muddled history. It is ultimately about truth and reconciliation. – Alvin Sturdivant Vice President, Student Development

Picture Detroit, Michigan in the 1970’s and you can begin to imagine my childhood. By the time I was ten years old, the mayor of Detroit was a black man, Coleman Young. The superintendent of public schools, Arthur Jefferson, was also a black man. I was blessed to grow up in times permeated by James Brown (“I’m black and I’m proud), the Black Panthers, dashikis, afro hair, and going every Sunday to Triedstone Baptist Church and later Detroit’s Afro-American Mission. In my memory, I hear people reminding me that the history of my race was something of which to be proud. Calendars my parents received from black businesses in town served as black history storybooks. (I honestly can’t remember if they were sent by funeral homes or insurance agencies.) Every year, we received a new calendar depicting black people succeeding in various fields such as Dorie Miller, a Navy gunner killed at Pearl Harbor and honored for his bravery, and Ida B. Wells, the journalist and sociologist who brought lynching into the national consciousness. Black history was not confined to a month at my public school. Yet, February afforded an opportunity for heightened reflections on what it meant to be black in America. Today, February still feels like a time to remember, to catch hold of the past and allow it to inspire me in the present. I recently joked with a friend that I should write a book titled “The Re-education of this Negro” as I have struggled with the times – police brutality against young black men and women, regular reminders of mass incarceration and injustice under the law. At times, the bleakness of the current day overwhelms me. I wish I could say that seeing all of the wrongs propels me toward solutions but at times I feel immobilized by the weight of racism. In contrast, it seems to me that Dr. Woodson called black people to have a knowledge of history because an understanding of the accomplishments of one’s forbears was essential to inspiration, aspiration, and justice. Increasingly, as I struggle with this present darkness I feel the need to draw on the dreams and victories of those who came before. I want to remember how they maintained faith and laughter as well as how tears and sorrow drove them forward. What’s black history month to me? It is both a call and a light. Black history month is the call of many voices saying “Remember. Press on.” Black history month is a light in the darkness that shows a way forward. Black history is about more than a month but this month reminds me to pause and locate myself within history. – Holly Slay Ferraro Associate Professor, Management

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Home — Essay Samples — History — African American History — Black History Month: The Importance of Knowing African American History

Black History Month: The Importance of Knowing African American History

• Categories: African American African American History

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Words: 553 |

Updated: 1 December, 2023

Words: 553 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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• Levin, M. J. (2016). From Jordan Belfort to Steve Cohen: The ethical perils of insider trading. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(3), 549-563.
• Lowry, D. T., & Gaskin, J. (2019). Gender and power in the workplace: Analyzing the influence of the #MeToo movement in organizational research. Journal of Management Inquiry, 28(4), 402-409.
• McNair, B. (2018). Gender stereotypes in the media. In The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender (pp. 57-66). Routledge.

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Black History Essay Topics

• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Black history is full of fascinating stories, rich culture, great art, and courageous acts that were undertaken within unthinkable circumstances. While Civil Rights events are the most common themes in our studies, we should resist equating Black history only with Civil Rights-era history. This list contains 50 prompts that might lead you into some interesting and little-known information about Black American history.

Note: Your first challenge in studying some of the topics below is finding resources. When conducting an internet search, be sure to place quotation marks around your search term (try different variations) to narrow your results.

• Black American newspapers
• Black Inventors
• Black soldiers in the American Revolution
• Black soldiers in the Civil War
• Buffalo Soldiers
• Buying time
• Camp Logan Riots
• Clennon Washington King, Jr.
• Coffey School of Aeronautics
• Crispus Attucks
• Domestic labor strikes in the South
• Finding lost family members after emancipation
• First African Baptist Church
• Formerly enslaved business owners
• Freedom's Journal
• Gospel music
• Gullah heritage
• Harlem Hellfighters
• Harlem Renaissance
• Harriet Tubman
• Historically Black Colleges
• History of rock-and-roll
• Jumping the broom
• Manumission papers
• Maroon villages in the eighteenth century
• Motown Records
• Multi-cultural pirate ships
• Narratives by Enslaved People
• Otelia Cromwell
• Ownership of property by enslaved people
• Purchasing freedom
• Ralph Waldo Tyler
• Register of Free Persons of Color
• Secret schools in antebellum America
• Sherman's March followers
• Susie King Taylor
• The Amistad
• The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• The Communist Party (involvement)
• The Great Migration
• The Haitian Revolution
• Tuskegee Airmen
• Underground Railroad
• Urban enslavement (related to buying time)
• Wilberforce College, Ohio
• 100 Persuasive Essay Topics
• Celebrating Black History Month
• Important Cities in Black History
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1900–1919
• What Is Black History Month and How Did It Begin?
• Black History Timeline: 1910–1919
• Black History Month Printables
• Black History Timeline: 1920–1929
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1920-1929
• Black History Timeline: 1940–1949
• Black History Timeline: 1700 - 1799
• Biography of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black Historian
• Black History and Women Timeline 1870-1899
• Black History from 1950–1959
• Little Known Important Black Americans
• Black History Timeline: 1960–1964

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Why We Should Celebrate and Study Black History All-Year Long

Although the 95th Annual celebration of Black History Month is officially coming to close this weekend, the in-depth study of African American life and culture must not be allowed to end on the last day of February each year. Many historians, activists, and educators have  long advocated  that we neither reduce black history, nor the history of other communities of color in this nation, to mere month-long festivities. As the Honorable Yvette Clarke, US Representative from New York’s 9th District, declares: 

“We must never forget that black history is American history. The Achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation’s greatness.”

And, with that in mind, there is literally a treasure trove of resources available to teachers, students, and anyone interested in discovering more about the African American experience all-year long, every year. For example, the  African American History Month website  provides an endless array of educational documents from the National Archives, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Gallery of Art, among other sources. Then, there is the  Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) , which maintains comprehensive source materials related to year-round programming, educational and cultural events, social media tools, and books and other publications, while also managing its own speaker’s bureau.

And, for an enlightening local twist on African American culture and history, the Star Tribune just released an illustrated online story (also appearing in Sunday’s print edition) titled “30 Essential Black Minnesota Musicians.” This feature showcases the rich (and ofttimes underappreciated) legacies of some of the state’s African American musical icons, including those before and after one Prince Rogers Nelson, that have “become Minnesota’s ambassadors to the rest of the world, and/or reshaped things here at home.”   

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Why Black History Month is more important than ever this year?

Catherine Ross - Founder Director, Museumand - The National Caribbean Heritage Museum Editor of Black History Month 2020

2020 has held a mirror up to the world and forced many to see the reality of racism in all its guises. From Black people dying disproportionately in the pandemic, to the horrific murder of George Floyd and no justice for Breonna Taylor – the 26-year-old emergency medical worker killed by police in her own home.

In the UK, the scale and impact of institutionalised racism has been laid bare, with young Black men stopped and searched 20,000 times in London during the coronavirus lockdown (the equivalent of 1 in 4 young Black men), along with Black MPs, barristers, senior police officers, sportspeople and many more.

#BlackLivesMatter protests around the world sparked a commitment among many individuals and organisations to educate themselves about Black history, heritage and culture – as part of understanding racism and standing in solidarity against it.

If that commitment is to transcend beyond social media into real change, everyone, from all communities, needs to embrace Black History Month as a starting point for exploring, discovering and celebrating Black history, heritage and culture – both past and contemporary. From the incredible achievements and contributions, to the many untold stories and barriers to progress – the day-to-day reality of institutionalised racism.

Crucially, this year’s Black History Month is a time to shine a light on our shared British history and tell the whole story honestly and truthfully, to decolonise and reclaim history, and tell stories from the perspective of all people – not just the rich white men in power. The felling of contentious statues and monuments is just the start, now it’s time to ask communities how colonial objects and symbols are used to tell the true story of history.

Black History Month 2020 is also a time to look forward and celebrate the here and now – and the future possibilities. In years gone by, October has been the only time of year when the UK talks about the achievements of Black people in Britain. Hopefully, the events of 2020 will be a catalyst for Black history to be shared much more widely – in museums, galleries, schools, universities, public spaces and communities.

Black people have always made history and always will – but it’s equally important that Black people take the lead on how that history is discovered, explored, researched, recorded, archived, curated, exhibited and shared. That means supporting Black-led heritage organisations and professionals; making national and local institutions much more accessible and representative; and empowering communities to define and share what Black history means to them.

Black culture isn’t just a commodity to be appropriated and monetised, and Black history isn’t just a month to be ticked off a calendar dominated by a white-washed version of history.

Black History Month 2020 is a time for people to come together and hopefully learn lessons for the present and the future. It’s a time to honour the commitment to learning and standing united against racism. It’s a time to reclaim history and re-imagine how our shared history will be told in the future.

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As Black History Month comes to a close, Stanford faculty reflect on the crucial contributions of Black Americans that should be studied and celebrated not only during February but also throughout the year. Whether examining the impact of writers like Toni Morrison, Civil War-era abolitionists or present-day political activists in Georgia, scholars from the humanities and social sciences emphasize that the history of Black Americans is essential to understanding our nation and our world.

Below, scholars from the School of Humanities and Sciences talk about how an understanding of Black history has shaped them personally and is integral to their research and work.

Hakeem Jefferson (Image credit: Harrison Truong)

Hakeem Jefferson Assistant Professor, Political Science

This year’s Black History Month comes on the heels of a white supremacist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. With this tragic event in mind, I am reminded that Black people have long served as the conscience of nations around the world in moments of crisis. I am reminded of brave abolitionists and freedom fighters and artists and everyday people who, with everything to lose, including life itself, have stood as vanguards and safekeepers of our democracy. And as a political scientist whose work tries to highlight the diversity and complexity of Black politics, I am reminded of Black activists and organizers in places like Georgia and Texas and Arizona who are working right now to make real the promise of democracy not just for Black people but also for all of us.

As a community of scholars, we have an opportunity to join these efforts, and this Black History Month offers us another opportunity to recommit ourselves to the cause of democracy – a cause Black people in this country have been advancing for generations and continue to advance today. The real question is whether we have the courage to stand with them.

Tomás Jiménez (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Tomás Jiménez Associate Professor, Sociology

Black history is American history. At each step in our nation’s development, Black Americans have led the call and shown by example how to live out the promise in our founding documents. Living up to that promise is an ongoing project. Taking up the challenge of that project requires reckoning with the ways that institutions and individuals have subjugated Black Americans through direct action, inaction or both. It also requires honoring the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American life, from politics and science, to art and spirituality.

It is well worth honoring the widely known individuals who have made those contributions. But we should also lift up individuals for whom there will never be a monument or plaque, but who have worked in every facet of American life to make our country a better place. They too made and continue to make Black history; to make American history.

Paula M. L. Moya (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Paula M. L. Moya Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor in the Humanities Professor, English

I study literature written by people of African descent not just for its wisdom, profundity, sadness and humor, but also because not to do so would leave me ignorant of a crucial history that has contributed fundamentally to making our nation what it is.

Toni Morrison is, for me and so many others, a beacon of wisdom and truth. Her writings, along with those of Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara and James Baldwin (among others), have taught me important lessons about how I, as a human being and also as a woman of color, can live with generosity in this challenging but beautiful world. I treasure their words, I carry them around in my heart and I use them to guide me as I make difficult decisions about who to care for and how to love even those who might not seek to love me back.

Patrick Phillips (Image credit: Marion Ettlinger)

Patrick Phillips Professor, English Interim Director, Creative Writing Program

I see the history of Black Americans as another name for  real American history – for our full history as a nation. And I think more people are finally rejecting a whitewashed version of the past, designed to protect white people from ever facing the monumental crimes of our ancestors, and from ever acknowledging the central role of African Americans in building American prosperity.

I learned this firsthand when I was doing research for a book about my hometown’s long-hidden history of lynching, white-supremacist terror and land theft. It also chronicles the lives of heroic Black residents who, amid crushing injustice, built new lives in post-Emancipation Georgia.

As a white southerner, I see the study of Black history as an urgent corrective to white America’s long tradition of willful ignorance and complicit silence. For as James Baldwin said, “it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.”

Steven O. Roberts (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Steven O. Roberts Assistant Professor, Psychology

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” —James Baldwin

We, as individuals and as a collective, cannot understand ourselves if we do not understand Black history. And the term itself is important to contextualize. Black history is U.S. history. It is human history. To understand Black history is to know the strength and resilience necessary to affirm one’s humanity, as affirmed by Malcolm and Queen Nzinga and many others. To understand Black history is to feel the heart and depth necessary to sing in soul, as sang by Aretha and Cooke and many others. To understand Black history is to understand what has been and what should be.

There ain’t no history like Black history, and I’m so honored to carry that history with me.

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Why We Need Black History Month

Where do Americans learn that white supremacy is OK?

According to former U.S. Representative Steve King, in history class.

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?”  he asked during a January 2019  New York Times interview. 

“Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

King’s comments indicated not only a shocking willingness to express his personal racism but also how far we have to go when it comes to sharing the truths about the founding of the United States and the history of civilizations around the world. 

This article is part of a series on teaching Black History Month. Read the others for a comprehensive approach to teaching this important part of American history:

Five Ways to Avoid Whitewashing the Civil Rights Movement

• Black History Month: Teaching Beyond Slavery
• Beyond the Little Rock Nine

For decades now, the material covered during the month of February, Black History Month, has been treated as a sidebar to the American history typically taught in U.S. schools. Posters of respectable Black figures hang in hallways and classrooms. Students read historical facts over the intercom during morning announcements, and teachers often have them read essays about a courageous civil rights activist in class. There’s a sort of novelty—these important, intricate milestones and moments that shaped the United States are divided into bite-size pieces, presented over 28 days. 

Perhaps there would be no need to observe Black history in a designated month if it were taught year-round, alongside other histories as part of a regular curriculum. It wouldn’t be such a novelty if there were a rigorous effort to view it as a central part of the American story. 

But we aren’t there yet. And, until we get there, Black History Month should be recognized as a crucial opportunity to broaden students’ knowledge and help them see how the past connects with their lives today—and how it has inspired movements for change. 

Feminists, LGBTQ advocates and leaders of the Chicano movement have all been inspired by the human rights campaigns of people of African descent, from rebellions to boycotts. 

Valuing Black Lives

Nearly 100 years after historian and author Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week, Americans still do not have a complete understanding of the Black experience and its influence on all of our lives. 

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history,” Woodson wrote. But that teaching often falls short. 

Black history is American history, and if educators are not equipped with the tools to teach these lessons—or they only prop up the feel-good parts of history—then they do a disservice to all students.

And we know that educators don’t have all they need to teach Black history right. Putting Steve King aside, there is a lack of comprehensive instruction, even within the two most commonly covered topics: slavery and the civil rights movement. 

Where We're Falling Short

Most students leave high school without knowing much about the enslavement of Africans in British North America and what became the United States, in part because textbooks, standards and curricula often fail to provide in-depth coverage. In 2017, we  reported that only 8 percent of high school seniors could identify slavery as a central cause of the Civil War. 

That lack of deep coverage is evident in textbooks. For example, Texas textbook publishers have been criticized for downplaying the role of slavery in the Civil War. That state’s board of education recently added slavery as the main cause of the war although they still opted to include “contributing factors,” such as states’ rights. The urge to dilute language when referring to hard history can also mislead students. In 2015, for example, a McGraw-Hill social studies textbook notoriously referred to enslaved Africans as “workers.” It’s an introduction to erasure—not seeing the value in a people who, such language implies, were given a choice. 

Meanwhile, younger students learn about key figures, such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, before they are introduced to the reasons these figures had to fight for freedom and equality in the first place. The context for their fight—American slavery—isn’t usually taught until later, around fourth or fifth grade. 

This pattern holds true in our teaching of the civil rights movement, as well. As we reported in 2011 and 2014 , states fail to set high expectations for learning. What students often get instead is a condensed version of factoids, a February full of “ holidays and heroes ,” when they can explore sanitized experiences of Black people without any context. 

The overall narrative goes something like this: America overcame slavery, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped usher in new civil rights laws, and then we elected the first Black president. This story gives a false sense of progress, or “post-racialism.” And it has real-life effects: When students are unable to connect the past to the present, it’s harder for them to recognize or fight against the oppressive systems that harm Black people to this day. 

When Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, aligning it with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, he knew that this recognition was more than just a time for touting achievements. 

He understood that people are more likely to devalue those who are invisible or omitted from history. Woodson hoped that if educators showcased African Americans’ humanity—their intellect, resilience, creativity and dignity—they could inspire Black people to embrace their Blackness and reject internalized racism. And they could encourage the rest of the world to embrace that humanity as well.

“If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition,” he wrote, “it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

It’s important to note that Black History Month shouldn’t be only about detailing traumatic experiences. While enslavement and the fight for basic human rights molded our society, it’s only a small part of this country’s saga. Black history doesn’t begin or end with slavery. Africans have always built civilizations and enjoyed diverse cultures of their own. 

However, since the continent is rarely explored in classrooms, African lives and experiences—and as a result, their influence on the world—is virtually erased.

Teaching Black History As American History

When learning about the passage of civil rights laws and other victories, students might grapple with the notion of equality versus the reality that our nation is far from equitable. Schools and neighborhoods continue to be segregated , and African Americans still fare worse than their white counterparts regarding wealth, health and rates of incarceration. 

Studying Black history helps students understand how failure to acknowledge past truths reinforces the status quo—a clinging to structures rooted in oppression.

They’ll learn that policy changes alone won’t amount to true equality. Policies haven’t ended institutional and systemic racism. And they never will until all lives are truly valued.

Writer and scholar Theodore R. Johnson explained it this way:

“It is much more comforting to believe that resolving the race issue is a simple matter of Black people assuming more personal responsibility, combined with better policy. But good behavior has never released a people from oppression, not even the Founding Fathers. And without a change in how the nation views its Black citizens, even good policy will be used as a cudgel.”

This is why we have to push our teaching beyond chronicles of “famous firsts” or exceptional Black people. We need instead to explain why we still have firsts —and how our nation developed the structures that kept Black people out of certain spaces or refused them certain opportunities, regardless of their merit or talent. 

Coming Soon

As we recommend in our Black history month resources , educators should also explore resistance movements , Black civic engagement , African-American cultural influences, diverse Black identities and the African diaspora. 

Use the tips in Four Black History Month Must-Haves as a springboard for introducing Black history in the classroom. This article shows teachers how to let student voices guide lessons, how to educate students about socio-political context, how to highlight the ways other communities of color connect to Black history and how to introduce complex descriptions of key figures in history. 

Until the influences, experiences and achievements of people of African descent are strategically woven into textbooks, educators must continue to embrace Black History Month robustly. We must show that a group of people whose narratives have been whitewashed, omitted or erased is, in fact, integral to the American story. Educators should ensure that students know African Americans co-authored that story, as they helped build—literally and figuratively—our social, political and economic structures. 

Did You Know?

Inspired by Black power movements, African-American students on college campuses championed the idea of celebrating Black history beyond one week. In 1976, 50 years after Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week, his Association for the Study of African American History (formerly the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History) broadened the celebration into Black History Month. 

Dillard is a senior writer for Learning for Justice.

Editor’s Note:  This story and its title were updated in January 2021. It was first published under the title “Steve King Shows Why Black History Month Matters.”

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An Essay on Black History Month

By lawyer, activist and ceo angela rye.

By Google Arts & Culture

Words by Angela Rye

Activism begins with a very important question: why NOT me or why NOT you or why NOT us? And the answer: this – whatever “this” is: Slavery/mass incarceration, lynchings/police killings, Dr. King’s concept of shedding nobodyness/BLM, MeToo)—this shall not be.

My Dad named me after Angela Davis, a scholar and activist most known for her work with the Black Panther Party. Our name means "bringer of truth" or "messenger of God." For me, that meant telling my teachers when history books misrepresented black people. My Dad is the same dude that ran one of the Panthers’ Free Breakfast programs from his job – Central Area Motivation Program. My Dad is a bullhorn-toting, large banner–waving protestor. He loves to march and protest–well, I don’t know if he loves to, but he definitely doesn’t miss the opportunity to engage in protest. When people ask my Dad how he’s doing, he normally replies: “I’m just out here fighting this racism, man.” That statement is normally followed by him spouting statistics about disparities in contracting, education, or the criminal justice system in Washington state. All proof that racism is alive and well. I didn’t get bit by the protesting and marching bug like my Dad and I, in fact, have shunned the term “activist” for most of my adult life. Being a lawyer, I suppose I believed activism was a less strategic form of ensuring advancement for our people. And I was wrong. I didn’t always agree with Dad on the means, but we certainly agree on the end goal. Racism must die. THAT I have always agreed with. As the child of a protestor, I grew up singing ‘power to the people, the people’s power.’ I grew up SINGING “We shall overcome” but not SEEING it. We’d say: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” But where was justice?

Angela Rye for Black History Month

Angela Rye, photo by Alexander Laurent courtesy of Mass Appeal

We chanted “Power to the people, the people’s power...getting stronger by the hour.” But was it really? At an early age my mom took me to see a Bobby Seale lecture. He had me at “All power to the people.” I was IN! All power to the people meant trying to determine how to re-start the Black Panther Party, which proved to be challenging at our all-girls, predominantly white Catholic school. So I settled for starting a Black Student Union with my best friend. All power to the people meant serving on a committee developed by the Seattle police chief, to address excessive force and police brutality in my hometown. It meant serving as a youth chaplain to the King County Juvenile Detention Center while I was in college. It meant running a computer lab at a community center, so people like me had access to technology. It meant tutoring black high school students to make sure they got into college.

Knowing the history instilled in me from my parents, I knew we’d been at this a long time, the sacrifice of our ancestors activism too often resulting in death or imprisonment – Nat, Denmark, Huey, Afeni. With progress there’s always a step backwards, but that step backwards did not mean the people’s power was gone. It just meant we needed more to preserve the change we sought and continue to seek. So I began to pursue power for good – again. It is with that willpower that I will fight for every BLACK LIFE that mattered, that matters, and that will matter. And it is with that will power that I will continue to engage in work that will make freedom a reality for the next generation – in the face of the all obstacles, including the false equivalency that “BOTH SIDES” are to blame. My activism is for everyone taking a knee who knows we weren't considered in the Declaration of Independence, the National Anthem, or this country’s flag. I stand on the shoulders of amazing women like Assata and Harriet and Sojourner and Dorothy and Angela and Ida and Queen Maxine and Tarana – every Black woman freedom fighter who made EVERY movement we’ve known in this country possible.

My activism is rooted in love because love will fuel the flame that empowers us to protect our power, our justice, and our freedom. Whether it’s sharing a hashtag on social media, using my platform to spread truth on issues impacting our community, challenging the community to be more diligent about supporting our businesses and our organizations – my activism is not optional. Now when people ask me how I am doing…too often I reply like my father: just out here fighting this racism, man. I pray neither of us will have to say that much longer. It’s time for racism to die. It's time to not just STAY woke, it's time to WORK woke. Our brighter future depends on it.

Words by Angela Rye | Photo by Alexander Laurent courtesy of Mass Appeal

• Black History Month is a monthlong focus on the Black heroes and pioneers who have shaped our world. • More than that, it spotlights the importance of being an ally to marginalized communities — not for 28 days but for all 365 days in a year. • Read on for thoughts regarding what this month means to our colleagues across Vericast.

February is Black History Month, a time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions made by Black heroes throughout history. In recent years, it’s also become a time to strengthen allegiance and support with marginalized communities.

Our colleagues at Vericast and our Multicultural Organization Supporting An Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC) Employee Resource Group (ERG) know the significance of Black history. In this blog post, Tonya “TJ” Jones-Dandridge , VP of finance and Vericast MOSAIC ERG co-lead, and Noureen Shaikh , manager of sales enablement and Vericast MOSAIC ERG co-lead, share their thoughts on what Black History Month means to them while featuring perspectives from leaders across the organization .

We would like for people to see Black History Month as a time to spotlight the full spectrum of being Black and living in America, similar to how we take time to celebrate other cultures. We wouldn’t stop an Irish American from celebrating St. Patrick’s Day or a Christian from celebrating Christmas. Those cultures are part of who they — and we — are, and every year we take time to celebrate part of our ancestral history.

Black History Month is that time for African Americans to acknowledge key figures from our past and present. It’s an opportunity to spotlight and celebrate the achievements that African Americans have accomplished in this country, despite the history of racism and oppression.

Most of all, it is a time to teach or remind our children of the history lessons they might not learn as part of the everyday school curriculum.

When President Gerald Ford expanded Negro History Week into a full month in 1976, he said the country needed to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Nearly half a century later, this statement still holds true.

Black History Month affords us the chance to challenge what we learned in history, dig deeper, and find out the actual events of the past that were not taught in schools.

It allows us to learn about, celebrate, and honor Black leaders. Many of these leaders endured sacrifice and suffering and must be honored. While those who contributed in the name of science, innovation, and economy were silently ignored, Black History Month celebrates and puts their achievements into the proper context.

Black History Month helps us learn about Black culture. The media tends to showcase the negatives of the Black community, such as poverty, drugs, incarceration, lack of education, etc. These portrayals paint a biased and unfair stereotype in our minds. Black History Month enables us to pause and focus on a more positive narrative of the Black culture. We can look to successful Black business leaders, poets, musicians, scientists, philanthropists, and artists to mitigate the damage caused by the unfair depiction of Black Americans in the media.

When we celebrate Black History Month, we aren’t just celebrating Black history. We are celebrating American history, which belongs to all Americans. By collectively and consciously celebrating Black history, we come together and continue to rewrite the narrative of our diverse nation.

Do you want to build up your foundation of Black history knowledge and observe it year-round? Read more about how to apply those lessons and keep the momentum going in this post . 

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Black History Month – a time to learn, a time to educate, a time to celebrate

Black History Month began in 1976 but was initiated by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who is known as the “Father of Black History.” He started the first Negro History Week in 1926 to ensure students would learn Black History.

The theme for Black History Month 2022 is “Black Health and Wellness,” which examines the legacy of Black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine and the legacy of Black people in general. Each year, the theme is determined by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and looks at the actions, rituals, and projects that Black communities have undertaken to achieve success.

FiftyForward, a long-time advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion of older adults, is committed to diversity and inclusion in its programs and centers. Living true to its mission to support, champion, and enhance life for those 50 and older, FiftyForward is evolving with the changing needs of the audience it serves.

To that point, and in advance of Black History Month, the FiftyForward podcast Squeeze the Day featured an interview with Dr. Paul T. Kwami , the Musical Director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In the podcast, he spoke about the therapeutic potential of Negro spirituals, as well as showcased his love for history, music, and the students he teaches at Fisk University, a longtime treasure of the Nashville community. It’s important to note Fisk University was the first American university to offer a liberal arts education to “young men and women irrespective of color” in 1866. The school was in severe financial circumstances five years later. Fisk treasurer and music professor George L. White formed a nine-member student choir and took it on tour to raise $20,000 for the university. Now, 150 years later, the musical legacy of the Fisk Jubilee Singers is known worldwide.

Photo credit: Bill Steber and Pat Casey

Squeeze the Day was one of the new communications efforts launched by FiftyForward in the last two years. COVID-19 brought home to everyone the dangers of isolation. For older adults, this is an ongoing concern that FiftyForward is committed to addressing by offering inspiring interviews with older adults about their rich life and second chapters. So many inspiring stories have been featured here that offer rich slices of history and wisdom from older adults.

In addition, and resulting from the advent of COVID-19, FiftyForward initiated a video series to amplify its desire to reach older adults who are isolated and staying safe as pandemic strains continue to create health hazards. In the inaugural FiftyForward Exchange community advocate and former FiftyForward board member Vanessa Hickman offers a firsthand account of growing up and the challenges she faced not only as a woman but as a woman of color. Her examples and stories are so telling and certainly resonate as they speak to exclusion and omission and the various forms of discrimination she faced as a young woman and later as a business professional, primarily early in her career.

Black History Month is a time to celebrate history and to come together as we create a more inclusive and vibrant future for generations to come.

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Home / Essay Samples / History / African American History / Knowing Your Past: Why is Black History Month Important

Knowing Your Past: Why is Black History Month Important

• Category: Sociology , Culture , History
• Topic: African American , African American Culture , African American History

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