This guide provides a starting point to learn about Black History Month which is celebrated annually during the month of February. This guide is intended as a non-exhaustive resource on contemporary and historic Black figures and their works, accomplishments, and histories. In it, we strive to recognize the intersectional nature of identity and hope to highlight voices and stories across a wide range of lived experience, while acknowledging and condemning the current and tragically persistent trend of anti-Black racism and violence in the United States.
The Shepherd University community is welcome to suggest resources, guides, or any other information relevant to this guide by contacting tcarlisl@shepherd.edu.
The theme selected for the 2025 African American History Month is "African Americans and Labor." The ASALH states that "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."
Source: ASALH. “ASALH - the Founders of Black History Month | BLACK HISTORY THEMES.” ASALH | The Founders of Black History Month (Est. 1915), 5 May 2017, asalh.org/black-history-themes/.
Nationally, February is recognized as Black History Month in the United States. Dr. Carter Woodson is known as the "Father of Black History" because of his instrumental role in establishing Black History Month.
"Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of Blacks in 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication outlets for Black scholars with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History (1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which garners a popular public appeal. In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the Black experience."
Source: Brown, Korey Boyers. "Carter G. Woodson."
