Black History Month Will Never Be Cancelled Says ASALH
By Fern Gillespie
Our Time Press
While Donald Trump was destroying community enrichment DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusive) programs in the federal government in January, the rumors were floating around that the White House was cancelling Black History Month for February 2025.
Brooklyn resident, historian Dr. Zebulon (Zeb) Miletsky, PhD, was stunned. He chairs marketing and communications for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the founders of Black History Month.
“I saw it all over social media people. Intelligent people were thinking, “Is Black History Month canceled this year?” Dr. Miletsky, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Stoney Brook, told Our Time Press. “So, the Association for Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) stepped in and we said ‘No.’ You can’t cancel what’s not yours.
ASALH was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. We are the originators and the creators and inventors of Black History Month. Therefore, we are the owners of Black History Month even if you tried to cancel it, people were going to celebrate it anyway.”
On February 1, 2025, the White House issued a proclamation saluting Black History Month. American Presidents dating back to Ford and, even Trump’s first administration, have conducted this announcement. “Trump knows that he does not have the right, or the ability to cancel Black History Month,” said Dr. Miletsky. “All he could do is start the rumor mill about it.”
The Department of Defense banned, not only Black History Month and other DEI related celebrations, but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wanted videos on the Tuskegee Airmen and Women’s Airforce Service Pilots removed from the education program.
“You’ve seen a pushback from the community that has caused Trump to reverse himself. That happened with the Tuskegee Airman at the Department of Defense,” said Dr. Miletsky. “They said we have changed our mind. You can show that video now to the Air Force.
That might not sound like much, but in the Trump era, that can be considered a very interesting victory.”
“It means that advocacy and organizing, still work.
We must push back,” he said. “Frederick Douglass said ‘power concedes nothing without a demand.’ You’re simply doing what our ancestors did, and what our forbearers did. They had tense moments. They had felt doubt and fear. Which people are feeling right now, but the antidote to that fear is organizing.”
Last year, Florida’s Governor DeSantis had the state’s Black History school curriculum rewritten so it deleted racism and stated Blacks benefited from slavery. In response, ASALH organized Freedom Schools in Florida that taught Black History.
“The classes continue to be held in churches, community centers, and other locations,” said Dr. Miletsky. “A lot of people paid attention and wanted to support it financially. They have had a lot of financial donations from grant programs, foundations and philanthropic organizations.”
On January 29, the Trump White House issued the executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” It focuses on “patriotic education” in American schools by restricting discussions on racism and gender through threatening funding. “Patriotic education is a complete reversal and denial, and a literal whitewashing of history.
To bring things back to the way they used to be when they would teach history and leave us out. They didn’t talk about our history,” he said. “Patriotic education is their response to what they characterize as woke. If Trump is rolling out, that idea nationally, then we need Freedom Schools probably in every city in this nation.”
ASALH was founded in 1926. This year’s theme is “African Americans and Labor.” ASALH has collaborated with the National Urban League for the year-long celebration examining the labor theme. Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, will be the keynote speaker at the annual Black History Month Luncheon and conference on February 22 in Washington, DC.
Speakers include Mary Frances Berry, former Assistant Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter and from 1993-2004 Chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Also, ASALH will be exploring the impact of A. Philip Randolph, founder of the first Black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Heading the 2025 Black History Month celebration is veteran historian Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, who has been named national president of ASALH. “We are celebrating our visible labor—from the work we did back then to build the White House to the work we do right now to hold the White House accountable, from repairing the roads to teaching in our schools, from stocking shelves to packing and unloading trucks; from working in the federal government to our ongoing labor in the state and local offices—and, our invisible labor—from raising and teaching our children to caring for our aging family members, from finding ways to practice revolutionary self-care to finding ways to hope beyond hope in a country that frequently targets and terrorizes Black people,” said Dr. Whitehead, professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland.
“Focus on Black labor is critical at this time,” said Dr. Miletsky. “Trump is going to be letting go and firing a great number of African Americans in civil service. In Washington DC, for many generations, that’s been jobs for Black folks. A significant part of the Black middleclass families in the DC area, Maryland and Virginia bought homes based on those incomes.”
At Dr. Miletsky‘s church, Calvary Fellowship AME Church in Bedford Stuyvesant, the congregation is constantly aware about Project 2025. A year ago, the pastor Rev Dr. Lisa Williamson, MD, made copies of Project 2025 and handed out to members of the church. “We keep it posted on our bulletin wall to this day,” he said.
“It reminds us what we’re fighting against and what we’re fighting for. So that we could study and be ready and be organized.”
ASALH programs are available on the website. For more information www.asalh.org