Black History Month

Origins of African American History Month

The “Father of Modern Black History,” Carter Godwin Woodson, son of former slaves and Ph.D. recipient from Harvard University, was an ardent advocate for the study of African American history.

Woodson was a historian, author, editor, and teacher, and served as dean of the Howard University School of Liberal Arts and the West Virginia Institute. Works he has authored include The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915), A Century of Negro Migration (1918), The Negro in Our History (1922), and The Miseducation of the Negro (1933).

In 1912, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Woodson began publishing the Journal of Negro History shortly thereafter. As Woodson assisted the organization, authored several books, and served in various roles in academia over time, he recognized that most African Americans had little knowledge of their history and culture. Not only did whites see little worth in African American history, but due to their indoctrinated subservience and embarrassment surrounding the slavery experience, African Americans also displayed little interest in their past.

In 1926, Woodson promoted Negro History Week as a means of commemorating African American history when the primary contribution of African Americans to American history was viewed as slavery. Woodson and his colleagues sought to preserve their African American culture and to enlighten the public of the varied contributions and achievements that comprised their history. Because Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Booker T. Washington all had birth dates in February, a week was selected that was in close proximity to those dates. ASALH published literature to support lectures, exhibits, and curriculum development for Negro History Week. The celebration was so well received that it gained national acclaim. In 1976, during the nation's bicentennial, Negro History Week was expanded to Black History Month, which is celebrated annually with a focus on a specific theme each year.

Important Events in Black History

1619	A Dutch ship brought twenty Africans to the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. They were the first blacks to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers in the North American British Colonies.
1739	The Stono Rebellion, one of the earliest slave revolts, occurs in Stono, South Carolina.
1793	Eli Whitney's cotton gin increase the need for slaves.
1808	Congress bans further importation of slaves.
1831	In Boston, William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of the anti-slavery newspaper the Liberator and becomes a leading voice in the Abolitionist movement.
1831-1861	Approximately 75,000 slaves escape to the North using the Underground Railroad.
1846	Ex-slave Frederick Douglass publishes the anti-slavery North Star newspaper.
1849	Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes an instrumental leader of the Underground Railroad.
1850	Congress passes another Fugitive Slave Act, which mandates government participation in the capture of escaped slaves.
1857	The Dred Scot v. Sanford case: congress does not have the right to ban slavery in the states; slave are not citizens.
1860	Abraham Lincoln is elected president, angering the southern states.
1861	The Civil War begins.
1863	Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation proclaims that all slaves in rebellious territories are forever free.
1863	Massachusetts' 54th regiment of African American troops led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw marches out of Boston on May 28th, heading into combat.
1865	The Civil War ends. Lincoln is assassinated. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery, is ratified. The era of Reconstruction begins.
1866	The "Black Codes" are passed by all white legislators of the former Confederate States. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, conferring citizenship on African Americans and granting them equal rights to whites. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee.
1868	The 14th Amendment is ratified, defining citizenship and overturning the Dred Scot decision.
1870	The 15th Amendment is ratified, giving African Americans the right to vote.
1877	The era of Reconstruction ends. A deal is made with southern democratic leaders which makes Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, and puts an end to efforts to protect the civil rights of African Americans.
1879	Thousands of African Americans migrate out of the South to escape oppression during the Great Migration.
1881	Tennessee passes the first of the "Jim Crow" segregation laws, segregating state railroads. Similar laws are passed over the next 15 years throughout the South.
1896	Plessy v. Ferguson case: racial segregation is ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court. The “Jim Crow” (“separate but equal”) laws begin, barring African Americans from equal access to public facilities.
1954	Brown v. Board of Education case: strikes down segregation as unconstitutional.
1955	In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks is arrested for breaking a city ordinance by refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. This defiant act began the Montgomery Bus Boycott and gave initial momentum to the Civil Rights Movement.
1957	Martin Luther King, Jr. and others set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading engine of the Civil Rights Movement.
1964	The Civil Rights Act is signed, prohibiting discrimination of all kinds.
1965	The Voting Rights Act is passed, outlawing the practices used in the South to disenfranchise African American voters.
1968	Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
2008	Barack Obama becomes the first African American to win the U.S. presidential race.
2013	The Black Lives Matter movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African- American teen Trayvon Martin.
2014	On Aug. 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo., by Darren Wilson. On Nov. 24, the grand jury decision not to indict Wilson was announced, sparking protests in Ferguson and cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.
2015	The 114th Congress includes 46 black members in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate.
2020	The BLM movement swelled to a critical juncture on May 25, in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, when 46-year-old George Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
2021	Kamala Harris makes history as first female and female of color to be Vice President. Ms Harris is the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father.

Black History Month: Black History Month Home

﻿Black History Month

Origins of African American History Month

Important Events in Black History

Black History Month