Black History Month marks 100 years of celebrating Black achievement

Black History Month is marking a major milestone this year.  

The 100th annual celebration of Black achievement begins today and lasts through the end of February. Here’s what to know about this year’s commemoration. 

How did Black History Month start?

The backstory:

Black History Month 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.

"I think Black folks understood what they had contributed to America’s historical narrative, but no one was talking about it," Kaye Whitehead, ASALH’s president, told The Associated Press in an interview last year. "No one was centralizing it until Dr. Carter G. Woodson was in 1926."

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.

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."

Another half-century later, Whitehead stresses that Black history is not just for Black people, it’s for all people.

"If you’re in an environment and everybody in the environment is white, you need Black History Month more than ever because you need to understand that the world, even though you like to believe it fits into this box, it does not," Whitehead said.

What is the 2026 Black History Month theme?

Big picture view:

This year’s theme is "A century of Black History Commemorations."

What they're saying:

"For our 100th theme, the founders of Black History Month urge us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history and life commemorations in transforming the status of Black peoples in the modern world,"  the ASALH said on its website. 

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"We are at a critical moment where we must decide in the spirit of Dr. King where America is moving toward chaos or community and we must decide what we are willing to do to turn the tide."

What you can do:

Learn more about Black History Month exhibits and events on the ASALH website and BlackHistory.gov. It’s also a good time for families to explore their genealogy, learn about their ancestors or come together to eat a meal and make family trees.

"We may be more familiar with the more public ways, but there are also a lot more intimate ways in which these messages are spread," Worth K. Hayes, an associate professor of history and Africana studies at Morehouse College, told the AP.