97 years ago this week, Dr. Carter G. Woodson announced the first Negro History Week, sparking a nationwide movement.
Who was Woodson? Woodson was a historian and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life & History. (ASNLH)
Woodson founded the ASNLH in 1915 after attending an event in Chicago marking the 50th anniversary of emancipation. (NPR)
The event inspired Woodson: he founded the ASNLH soon after to document "neglected aspects of Negro history." (NAACP)
In 1926, Woodson designated Feb. 7–15 as Negro History Week and urged teachers across the US to teach Black history.
Why Feb. 7–15? According to the NAACP, the week coincides with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
How did a week become a month? The push for a monthlong observation began with student activists at Kent State in 1970.
In 1970, Kent State's Black United Students observed the first ever Black History Month with the support of faculty. (KS)
The observation caught on: in 1976, the ASALH (formerly ASNLH) followed suit and expanded the week to a month. (LOC)
In 1976, Pres. Gerald Ford formally recognized Feb. as Black History Month during the country's bicentennial. (NPR)