About Black History Month
In 1915, Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) to educate and bring attention to the contributions of Black people in American and world history.
Several years later, in 1926, Woodson urged the Black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, Inc. to create Negro History and Literature Week.
They later changed the Name to Negro History Week, designating February as the month to celebrate Black achievement, giving homage to Abraham Lincoln (who issued the Emancipation Proclamation) and Frederick Douglass (a noted abolitionist and proponent of education as empowerment). Both men were born in February.
Years later, (in 1970) and in response to the Black Power Movement, the ASNLH changed the name from Negro History Week to Black History Week; finally extending the commemoration to the entire month of February in 1976.