Honoring the Legacy and Progress of Black History Through Collective Action: Black History Month 2026
Black History Month 2026: Former Georgia Representative Julian Bond and Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver spoke about a powerful moment involving Rosa Parks. They said a gear in the universe’s machinery shifted when she stayed seated on that Montgomery bus. Everything changed.
A Gear-Shifting Moment
This country has a long history of fighting racial oppression. People have fought against white supremacist narratives and apartheid laws. In this ongoing battle, individuals have taken stands that created gear-shifting moments.
One happened in 1850. Harriet Araminta Tubman had emancipated herself just a year prior. Yet, she chose to return to Baltimore, Maryland. She led her niece and her niece’s two children to freedom. A gear shifted.
Another moment occurred in 1770. Crispus Attucks, a Black and Indigenous sailor, joined the growing unrest in Boston. In 1864, the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops marched from Camp William Penn. They walked through Philadelphia’s streets on their way to fight. A gear shifted then too.
The Power of Choosing to Stand
Mamie Till made a bold choice in 1955. She told the funeral home to leave her son’s casket open. She wanted the world to see what those white men had done. That decision shifted a gear in the universe.
It happened again in 1966. Kwame Ture and Mukasa Dada declared Black Power after the “March Against Fear.” We saw it in 2014 as well. Police officers killed unarmed Eric Garner in New York and teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson. Black people united under the Black Lives Matter banner. They marched, protested, and demanded change.
Gears shift when we fight. They shift when we stand up and refuse to back down. The universe’s moral arc does not bend toward justice on its own. We must push it. We must continue pushing until change happens.
Proclaiming Our Own History
In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson sent out a press release. He announced the first Negro History Week. This shifted a gear.
Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was the son of formerly enslaved parents. He worked as a sharecropper and miner before becoming the second Black person to earn a Harvard History Ph.D.
He selected February for a specific reason. The Black community already celebrated the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (2/12) and Frederick Douglass (2/14). Dr. Woodson did not wait for others to proclaim our history. He proclaimed it himself. He did not wait for permission to celebrate our contributions. He simply celebrated them.
Dr. Woodson knew Black parents had taught their children our history since we arrived here. The wind carried our stories. The soil held our achievements. We whispered them as bedtime stories. Pastors spoke them from Sunday pulpits. We wove them into our songs of resistance. America did not need to tell us who we were. We told them.
We Stand at the Intersection
America did not have to tell us we built this country. Our fingerprints remain etched in the stone. America does not have to proclaim Black History Month. We proclaim it.
We live in Dr. Woodson’s legacy. We will celebrate who we are, just as we have for 98 years. We will celebrate all we have accomplished. We stand where the past meets the future. Our actions now determine how the next gear shifts.
The 2025 Black History Month theme is African Americans and Labor. This theme explores how work intersects with Black experiences. It covers free and unfree labor. It looks at skilled and unskilled work. It examines vocational and voluntary efforts. We honor the transformational work we have done across the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora.
Celebrating Visible and Invisible Labor
We celebrate our visible labor. This includes building the White House in the past and holding it accountable now. It involves repairing roads and teaching in schools. It means stocking shelves and unloading trucks. It encompasses federal government work and service in local offices.
We also honor our invisible labor. This includes raising children and caring for aging family. It involves practicing revolutionary self-care. It means finding hope in a country that often terrorizes Black people. We witness what it means to work hard daily. We know what it feels like to be sick and tired of working so hard.
A Lighthouse for the Journey
I serve as the president of ASALH. I am one of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s many legacy keepers. I am excited to proclaim the start of Black History Month 2025.
I view ASALH as a lighthouse. You might not notice it until you need it. Boats caught in storms look for the light. It guides them safely back to shore.
We stand proudly as that lighthouse. We proclaim the importance of Black History. We help people understand our journey. You must study our quilted historical narrative. Only then can you see the silences and blind spots in American history. Only then can you see the hypocrisies and distortions.
We do not celebrate because someone gave us permission. We celebrate because we give the permission. We do not wait for a proclamation of Black History Month. We proclaim it. We do not wait for others to see us. We see ourselves.
We do not need America’s story told to us. We are writing it. We are telling it. We own it. We point the way.
We invite you to join us. Let us celebrate the incredible contributions Black people have made to this beautiful, imperfect nation.
Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is the 30th person and eighth woman to serve as ASALH’s national president. She is a professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland. She hosts the award-winning radio show “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA, 88.9 FM. She authored the recently released “my mother’s tomorrow: dispatches from Baltimore’s Black Butterfly.” She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and lives in Baltimore with her family. You can reach President Whitehead at kwhitehead@asalh.org.
#BlackHistoryMonth2026 #WeProclaimIt #ASALH
