First established in 1926 as a time to celebrate and commemorate African American leaders, Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. Originally it was only a week, chosen for its proximity to the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Booker T. Washington. In 1976, for the USA bicentennial, it was expanded into a month.
It is celebrated in February in the United States and Canada, while in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom it is observed in October.
Read more about the origins of the Black History Month at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
The annual theme of Black History Month 2025 is African Americans and Labor.
"The 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. Indeed, work is at the very center of much of Black history and culture. Be it the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed Low Country colonies, debates among Black educators on the importance of vocational training, self-help strategies and entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice, Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. The 2025 Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor,” sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work."
Read the full statement on the ASALH website.