The month of February is designated as Black History Month to celebrate and recognize the role of African-Americans in United States’ history. Every year a new theme is chosen to represent that month’s main focus. The Crisis in Black Education is 2017’s theme, addressing the important role of education in the history of African-Americans.

Black History Month evolved from the 1926 Negro History Week in which Carter Woodson who founded the Journal of Negro History and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, created. The second week of February was chosen because Black communities across the United States, had already been celebrating Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas’s birthdays for years.

Kent State’s Black United Students proposed extending Black History Week to Black History Month in 1969 and celebrated in the month of February in 1970. Black History Month was officially recognized by President Gerald Ford in 1976, coinciding with the Bicentennial.

Resources – Oklahoma Black History Month Events:

List updated 1/31/17