Celebrating 100 years of Black History Month

This February, we celebrate a century of Black History Month. 

A hundred years ago, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a historian, journalist, and author, launched what he called “Negro History Week” in 1926. He chose February deliberately, aligning the week with the birthdays of two towering figures in the fight for freedom: President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 

What began as a single week aimed at educating Black Americans about their own history has grown, decades later, into a monthlong celebration recognized across the nation and now internationally. 

Today, we know it as Black History Month, a permanent fixture in our culture that honors Black achievement, resilience, and influence. 

Over the past 100 years, Black History Month has evolved into more than a classroom lesson or a calendar reminder. It has become a communal act of remembrance, reflection, and recognition. From the civil rights struggles to cultural movements in music, art, and literature, Black Americans have shaped the story of this country in ways too vast to fully capture.  

Here in Charleston, there are countless ways to celebrate this 100-year milestone.  

• Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens is hosting displays all month, along with a speaker series every weekend and “A Sweet Taste of Gullah” on Sunday, Feb. 22.  

• The International African American Museum in downtown Charleston offers events throughout the month, including "Remembrance: Vincent Brown on Memory, History, & Slavery and Awakening of the Ancestors: A Journey of Spirit, Song & Soul."  

• For history up close and personal, Bulldog Tours offers a two-hour guided experience at $10 that begins at Liberty Square on Concord Street and explores Charleston’s African American history from the past to the present.  

• In Park Circle, KELA’s "Crowned by the Roots: Power of Hairitage" exhibition explores identity, heritage, and lineage through African American hair culture on Thursday, Feb. 26, 5-9 p.m.  

These events aren’t just celebrations; they’re living history, invitations to participate, reflect, and connect. 

Honoring Black History Month is also about understanding the journey of history itself. From Woodson’s vision of a single week to the official proclamation of a month by President Gerald Ford in 1976, the observance has grown in scope and meaning. 

Its theme this year, “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” asks us to consider the impact of these celebrations in transforming the status of Black people and reshaping our national consciousness. As Woodson warned nearly a century ago, “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world.”  

This month is the time to reflect, to honor resilience, to acknowledge the work still ahead, and to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans whose legacies are woven into the very fabric of our nation.