What does “Black History Month” mean?

February, set aside to study and celebrate Black history, growing out of Negro History Week.

Entry · catalog no. 8403

Black History Month

/ /blæk ˈhɪstəri mʌnθ/ /BLAK HIS-tuh-ree MUNTH

noun · Washington, D.C. (ASNLH); Kent State University (Ohio) · 1920s

✓ Verified

The annual February observance of Black American history and achievement.

“The school put on its Black History Month assembly in the gym.”

The earlier Negro History Week (second week of February) from which it grew.

“My grandmother only knew it as Negro History Week.”

Origin & Attribution

Historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History founded Negro History Week in February 1926, timed to the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). Black students and educators at Kent State University expanded it to a month in February 1970, and President Gerald Ford formally recognized Black History Month in 1976. It is a Black-founded observance, not a gift from the state.

1926

Carter G. Woodson founds Negro History Week

1970

Kent State holds first Black History Month

1976

President Ford recognizes Black History Month

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Washington, D.C. (ASNLH); Kent State University (Ohio) · 1920s

Spoken by

Black educators and historians, then the whole country

$BLACKHThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

100 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

80/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1926

in the culture

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

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Recognition of Black History Month, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library blog

article

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When was Black History Month first celebrated, Encyclopaedia Britannica

article

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Where It All Began: A Black History Month 101, The Root

article

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