The month of February is officially designated as Black History Month, honoring African Americans’ contributions to our history and culture. What began as a week initiated by Carter G. Woodson and his founding of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History‘s (ASALH) in 1926 was expanded to a full month in the 1970s. This celebration month was created to highlight African Americans’ impact on civil rights, science, arts, and culture across the nation. ASALH issues themes, such as the 2024 theme of “African American and the Arts,” each year to celebrate African Americans’ many achievements, culture, and history.
Each February and year-round, the American Alliance of Museums joins other cultural institutions across the country to celebrate this rich history, emphasizing the Black community’s global legacy and reaffirming the importance of recognizing and celebrating African Americans’ enduring spirit and achievements.
Explore related resources from AAM:
» AAM Resource Library topic on DEAI & Anti-racism
Looking Back to Move Forward: Examining Institutional Racism in Reprising “Afro-American Images 1971” by Margaret Winslow
“A Liberatory Framework: Critical race theory can help museums commit to anti-racism and combat anti-blackness” by Porchia Moore – free article from Museum magazine
Black History in Our Own Backyard: Building Community in a COVID World by Rowena Houghton Dasch
Outside > Inside: Outdoor Exhibitions in the Era of Covid and Black Lives Matter by Michael Epstein
An Afrofuturist School Program Empowers Children to Envision the Future by Nina Woodruff-Walker
A Collection of Resources by and for BIPOC Museum Professionals by Youssef Shokry
Racism, Unrest, and the Role of the Museum Field – Recording freely available from a special session of the AAM Virtual Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo (2020) with Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, and Lori Fogarty.
Is That Hung White? Revisiting Issues of Race and Inclusion in Exhibitions — On-Demand Program in the AAM Member Resource Library. Presenters: Stacey B. Mann, Joanne Jones‐Rizzi, Marquette Folley, Veronica Garcia‐Luis, and Su Oh.
Association of African American Museums (AAAM)
Learn about the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) in Washington, DC, a non-profit member organization established to support African and African American-focused museums nationally and internationally and the professionals who protect, preserve and interpret African and African American art, history and culture. Visit www.blackmuseums.org and read AAAM’s information on how their member museums and sites offer opportunities to celebrate and serve during Black History Month and year-round.
Articles and stories from across the museum field:
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) showcases on this page how museums and libraries have celebrated Black History Month, and leveraged the IMLS Museum Grants for African American History and Culture program to educate about Black history, culture, knowledge, and civil rights throughout the year.
“How the Smithsonian is Helping Black Americans Trace Their Roots” from Smithsonian Magazine
“The Home of Carter G. Woodson, the Man Behind Black History Month” from the New York Times
“The Invisible Presence of Blackness in American Art” on Hyperallergic
“In Charleston, a Museum Honors a Journey of Grief and Grace” from the New York Times
“The Definitive Story of How the National Museum of African American History and Culture Came to Be” from Smithsonian Magazine
“For Turn-of-the-Century African Americans, the Camera Was a Tool for Empowerment” from Smithsonian Magazine
“A Massive Archive Tells the Story of Early African American Photographers” from Smithsonian Magazine
“MuseumFutures Africa: Creating New Possibilities in African Museology” from Museum ID
“How Carter G. Woodson turned February into Black History Month” from The Washington Post
“Black history is vital to understanding racial injustice. But the museums holding that history are under threat” from The Washington Post
Opinion: “My kids need to know that Black is brilliance. So we go to museums.” from The Washington Post
“How a Wave of Honest History Museums Is Changing Black Tourism” from Slate
Additional resources from:
American Association for State and Local History:
Interpreting African American History and Culture Resource Kit
Black History: More than Just a Month by Mike Henry, published by Rowman & Littlefield
Recorded Session: Memorializing African American History: Cemeteries, Monuments, and Markers
Library of Congress:
Free to Use and Reuse: Images of African American Women Changemakers
Museum Hue:
Mapping Communities: Black Enclaves in New York City from 1825 to 1950 is an interactive exploration using narrative, timeline, videos, and curriculum of the history of Seneca Village and Weeksville, two historic Black communities in New York City, and their significant contributions to developing the city’s cultural richness.
National Archives:
African American History has research resources, step-by-step guides for locating important African American records, access to an online community related to research, and additional resources.
National Park Service:
Black History Month – NPS Commemorations and Celebrations (U.S. National Park Service)
National Endowment for the Arts:
Black History, Black Joy by NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD (February, 2024)
“Changing the Narrative: Equity and Access in the Arts for Black Communities” (American Artscape, 2021 No. 1)
National Endowment for the Humanities:
The EDSITEment initiative’s guide to African American History and Culture in the United States
Smithsonian Education:
Black History Month has Arts Resources, Sidedoor podcast episodes, and General Resources
Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture:
Black History Month Digital Toolkit
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:
Slavery and Remembrance: A guide to sites, museums, and memory is a collaboration of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and dozens of sites and museums.
Inspiration for how you or your museum might get involved:
Get inspiration from other museums in February or throughout the year:
- Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) celebrates Black History Month with the theme “African Americans and the Arts,” emphasizing art as a tool for social justice. Offering both online and in-person programming, the museum’s “NMAAHC Kids Learning Together” series gives children the opportunity to meet Black beekeepers, scuba divers, and rock climbers. The museum also offers free sessions to give visitors advice on researching their genealogy.
- The Banneker-Douglass Museum of History in Annapolis, Maryland, kicked off its Year of Civil Rights programming through the REVISIT/REIMAGINE exhibition in February.
- The Museum of Pell City debuted a Black History Month exhibit called “Breaking Barriers,” featuring community members as they navigated the events of their eras, with narratives spanning decades.
- Museums can consider how to showcase Black artists, such as The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture highlighting Black women in the fiber arts and artist Stephen Hayes’ “Cash Crop” exhibit at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, which aims to create a connection between human rights violations of the past and present.
- The United States Civil Rights Trail is a chart of the course of the Civil Rights Movement through the Civil Rights Trail, connecting explorers with the stories and landmarks, like museums, churches, courthouses, and schools across 15 states that played a pivotal role in advancing social justice in the 1950s and 1960s.
- The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and several other Houston cultural institutions collaborated to create Black Art Houston, a city-wide art crawl to honor Black History Month and showcase several exhibits focused on African American culture and art.
- The California African American Museum (CAAM) offers events celebrating Black farmers, chefs, and entrepreneurs; interactive healing circles and discussions; book club; and resources about Black History Month in California history.
Sharing with the field
Did your museum honor or celebrate Black History in February, or any time of year? Consider pitching an idea about your museum’s work with your community, how your museum worked internally on the initiative or program, or another relevant angle for museum professionals. We are always looking for posts that empower museum professionals to do their best work; reveal new ideas and connections; and speak to a wide breadth of museum types, sizes, and disciplines.
About Black History Month:
A Proclamation on National Black History Month, 2024 – The White House
On the historical significance of Black History Month:
“Celebrating Black History Month” from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
“Black history every day” by Susan D. Anderson from the California African American Museum (CAAM)