HOW BLACK HISTORY MONTH CAME TO BE
HOW BLACK HISTORY MONTH CAME TO BE Frederick Douglass, right, and his grandson Joseph Douglass (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift of Dr. Charlene Hodges Byrd) Black communities didn’t need a week or a month dedicated to their history in order to remember and treasure it, says historian Matthew Delmont of Dartmouth University. “They kept it in diaries and family records, in black newspapers, and through stories,” says Delmont, who is busy each February speaking to groups in schools and corporations as the United States observes Black History Month. How an annual observance started The celebration of the contributions of African Americans began in 1926 with Negro History Week (using the term that was later replaced by “Black” or “African American”). The week was timed to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln, signer of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Frederick Douglass, who fought against slavery and became a social reforme
