In 1915,
Carter G. Woodson, an accomplished historian and graduate of the University of Chicago, traveled from Washington D.C. to take part in a three-week celebration commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. The celebration, attended by thousands of people from all across the country, displayed a number of exhibits, each telling a part of the history of Black Americans and their contributions to our nation. Inspired by these celebrations and the exhibits displayed, Woodson, along with A. L. Jackson, minister Jesse Moorland, and others came together at the Wabash YMCA on September 9 to form the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In 1926, Woodson announced that the second week of February, the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, shall be recognized as Negro History Week, a period of historical remembrance that would eventually evolve into Black History Month.
