Welcome to the home of the Region IV Black History Month Conversation Series. Below you can find some information about Black History Month, as well as direct links to interviews and conversations with professionals and students that share about their NIRSA experiences as Black and African Americans.
About Black History Month
Each February, we celebrate Black History Month, a time to celebrate and recognize Black and African Americans for their achievements and contributions to our country. The celebratory month originated in the early 1900s, over half a century after slavery was abolished with the 13th Amendment. Historian Carter Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). The mission of ASNLH was to “research and promote achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent.”
Now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), this group founded Negro History week in 1926, originally just the second week of February. This coincided with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In the decades that followed, Negro History Week grew across the country, and by the late 1960s, the celebratory week expanded and evolved into a month-long celebration of Black and African American excellence, Black History Month.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford formally recognized February as Black History month, encouraging Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
