Black History Month was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in February 1926. Photo courtesy of asalh.org

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Black History Month is an annually observed month-long celebration of African American life, history, and culture.

Founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in February 1926, what was formerly known as Negro History Week became a month-long celebration as a way to promote, research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, History, and culture to the global community.

The relevance of February goes back to 1926, when Dr. Woodson first established “Negro History Week” during the second week of February. And why that week? Because it encompasses the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both men being great American symbols of freedom. 

More importantly, Dr. Woodson chose them for reasons of tradition. Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the black community, along with other Republicans, had been celebrating the fallen President’s birthday. And since the late 1890s, black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass’. Well aware of the pre-existing celebrations, Woodson built Negro History Week around traditional days of commemorating the black past.

The 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds, free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary, intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.

Indeed, work is at the very center of much of Black history and culture. Be it the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed Low Country colonies, debates among Black educators on the importance of vocational training, self-help strategies and entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice, Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora.

The 2025 Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor,” sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work.