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February Is Black History Month: In 1969, Black students and educators at Kent University proposed an annual celebration of Black History Month, and, a year later, the university held the first celebration. Black History Month became a national observance within educational institutions and Black community organizations. Then in 1976, President Gerald Ford urged the country to recognize Black History Month during a bicentennial observance.

Fifty years before this first official observance, Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D., a Black history scholar, proposed the observance of Negro History Week for the second week of February. That week is meant to include Abraham Lincoln’s and Frederick Douglass’ birthdays, the 12th and 14th respectively.