On Feb. 7, the leading Black history celebration effort will turn 100 years old, and Michigan played an important role in advancing it.
The annual acknowledgement, first celebrated in 1926 as Negro History Week, was created by founder Carter G. Woodson. The son of slaves, Woodson was born in Virginia and raised in West Virginia. He earned a doctorate degree from Harvard University. Woodson died at age of 74 in 1950.
Woodson identified the second week of February as Negro History Week (launched in 1926) to coincide with the birthdays of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14). This choice aimed to honor two figures who significantly impacted the freedom of Black Americans. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which helped to free Blacks from slavery in America.