Skip to Main Content

Black History Month : Home

Black History Month

Information

Black History Month is an annual commemoration of the history, achievements and contributions of black people.

It first was recognised in 1976 when the 38th president at the time, Gerald Ford, announced that the week-long event should be celebrated for the full month in February to ““honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history.”

Influenced by the February Black History month celebrations in the USA, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo founded the UK version of Black History Month. Akyaaba came to the UK from Ghana as a refugee in 1984, he is a Ghanaian analyst and a journalist who built support from all political parties to bring Black History Month to the UK. The first UK Black History month took place in 1987, the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean. A series of historical talks and events happened in London which loads of people came to.

Notable figures

  • Shirley Chisholm - the first black woman elected to Congress in the late 60s and became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972. 
  • Bayard Rustin – close advisor to Martin Luther King and one of the most effective organizers of the civil rights movement. Rustin organized and led a number of protests in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
  • Claudette Colvin - before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, brave 15-year-old Claudette Colvin chose not to sit at the back of the bus.
  • Jane Bolin – the first black woman to attend Yale Law School in 1931 and became the first black female judge in the US in 1939.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. – all King wanted in life was to achieve and justice for Americans of all colours. In 1960, King joined a sit-in at the segregated lunch counter with black college students. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy negotiated to have King released from jail, an action that is credited with helping Kennedy win the presidency. King is commonly known for his ‘I have a dream’ speech which took place on August 28th, 1963 IN Washington, D.C. In March 1965, King and his wife lead thousands of nonviolent demonstrators 54 miles to the state capitol of Montgomery from Selma, Alabama were they were campaigning for the right to vote. In his lifetime, Martin Luther King has been arrested several times but no matter how many times he got arrested, that didn’t stop him from getting equality and justice and achieving his dream.