Overview
- Negro History Week began in 1926 under Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland, with February chosen to align with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
- National recognition expanded in 1976 when President Gerald Ford endorsed a monthlong observance, and Congress formally designated February as Black History Month in 1986.
- Centennial programming spans museums, schools and cultural centers, including Smithsonian exhibitions and ASALH events, while one report notes no listed public programming at the Kennedy Center.
- Recent reporting details federal moves under President Trump that critics say sanitize Black history, citing an executive order, agency guidance, and the National Park Service’s removal of a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia.
- Educators say Woodson’s year‑round integration goal remains unfinished, even as observances extend beyond the United States to Canada in February and to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands in October.