The celebration of black history began in 1926, when Dr. Carter Woodson, a historian, scholar and writer of black history known as the "Father of Negro History," started Negro History Week.
This period - the second week of February - honored the birthdays of two Americans who were instrumental in ending slavery, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
It was mainly black churches and segregated black schools that celebrated the week. But during the civil rights era in the 1960s, when more blacks enrolled in predominantly white colleges and universities, black students started a movement to extend the week-long history celebration to the full month of February.
In 1976, upon the bicentennial of the founding of the United States, Woodson's organization -the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History - put its name behind this movement and asked then-President Gerald Ford to officially make February the month of black history.
Their request was granted. Three decades later, February is still known and celebrated as Black History Month.
