What has now become Black History Month began in 1926 as Negro History Week, created by historian Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson, the second African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, timed the week to coincide with the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln.
Fifty years later, in 1976, the organization now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History expanded the celebration from a week to a month. President Gerald Ford also issued the first national Black History Month proclamation in 1976, noting the relevance of 1976 as the bicentennial of the United States.
“Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are what our revolution was all about. They were ideals that inspired our fight for independence: ideals that we have been striving to live up to ever since. Yet it took many years before these ideals became a reality for Black citizens,” Ford noted.
“In celebrating Black History Month, we can take satisfaction from this recent progress in the realization of the ideals envisioned by our Founding Fathers. But, even more than this, we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history,” Ford continued.
Black History in the SOM
Learn more about Black history at Emory and in the School of Medicine.
The School of Medicine aims to create a culture and climate of equity and inclusion, where diversity is nurtured, valued, and celebrated, during awareness months and all year long.