Black History Month 2025 celebrates role of Black labor in building nation
Feb. 1 marks the beginning of Black History Month in the United States.
It’s a designation that dates back to 1926, when Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), created Negro History Week to encourage Black Americans to become more interested in their own history and heritage.
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What is the theme for Black History Month 2025?
Every year the ASALH chooses a different theme.
This year’s theme highlights African Americans and labor.
In New York City, a cube sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. stands at the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Complex, located at Amsterdam Avenue and W. 66th Street. (Photo by: Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The theme focuses on the many ways that work intertwines with the experiences of Black people in America, according to the ASLAH. The organization plans to use the month, and the rest of the year, focusing on the role of Black labor in building the nation through industry or community work.
"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 ASLAH website said.
How did Black History Month start?
The backstory:
Woodson first came up with the idea of the celebration that became Black History Month.
Woodson, born in 1875 to recently freed Virginia slaves, went on to earn a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. He worried that Black children were not being taught about their ancestors’ achievements in American schools in the early 1900s.
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"Woodson fervently believed that Black people should be proud of their heritage and all Americans should understand the largely overlooked achievements of Black Americans," the NAACP states on its website.
Woodson originally came up with the idea of Negro History Week to encourage black Americans to become more interested in their own history and heritage and it was established in 1926.
Why is Black History Month in February?
Dig deeper:
Woodson chose February for Negro History Week because it had the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, and Douglass, a former slave who did not know his exact birthday, celebrated his on Feb. 14.
The first Negro History Week was announced in February 1926.
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When did the celebration expand from a week to a month?
Individually several places, including West Virginia in the 1940s and Chicago in the 1960s, expanded the celebration into Negro History Month. The civil rights and Black Power movement advocated for an official shift from Black History Week to Black History Month.
In 1976, 50 years after the first celebration, the ASALH officially shifted from a week to a month and from "Negro history" to "Black history." Since the mid-1970s, every U.S. president — Democrat and Republican — has issued proclamations honoring the spirit of Black History Month and endorsing the organization’s annual theme.
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Is Trump honoring Black History Month?
What they're saying:
President Trump issued a proclamation Friday recognizing February as Black History Month, but the Defense Department, meanwhile, issued guidance declaring "identity months dead."
The White House proclamation calls for "public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities," though there is no elaboration on what constitutes "appropriate."
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The Source: This report includes information from the Associated Press, the NAACP, the ASALH and previous LiveNow from FOX reporting.