CALL FOR PAPERS
The Significance of Black History: A Century of Observance, 1926 to 2026
Marking a century of weeklong and monthlong Black history observances sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and its predecessors, the Journal of African American History is planning a special issue for 2026 that explores the impact of teaching, commemorating, and defending Black history. When Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson created Negro History Week in 1926, he believed that an annual event would transform how people of African descent viewed themselves and the world. Woodson understood that expanding the study and dissemination of factual information about Black people in the United States and abroad would be crucial to ending Black oppression globally. Woodson was confident that such endeavors would facilitate Black people taking their rightful place as equals in the shaping of human destiny.
Guest editors Kaye Wise Whitehead and Daryl Michael Scott invite article manuscripts that assess local, state, national, or transnational influences on Black history. How have Dr. Woodson’s goals for a weeklong (later monthlong) observance been realized or fallen short since 1926? How have observances changed over time? How have yearly observances reflected or affected the changing positions of Black people internationally? In addition to those and related questions, authors might engage the topics below, among others.
- the nineteenth-century origins of Black history observances
- how various individuals or groups have opposed or attempted to co-opt Black history and Black history events
- how annual Black history commemorations have assisted in influencing Black consciousness, socio-political activism, or a related item
- how the traditional Black Power Movement shaped or reshaped Black history observances
- the development of Black history commemorations within national and international contexts in the U.S. and around the world
- the inclusion of Black history as a part of general U.S. and world history offerings in secondary and post-secondary curricula
- the impacts of Black history observances on U.S. life and culture
- the significance of Black history and Black history commemorations in specific localities (cities, towns) as well as state or regional differences between such commemorations
- the growth and influence of commercialization on Black history and Black history observances
- the impact of radical or revolutionary groups like the Communist Party to promote annual Black history observances
- the incorporation of contests, pageants, plays, and similar events into socio-cultural (e.g., club, educational, fraternal, religious) celebrations of Black history
Authors should submit essays via the Editorial Manager® system. Manuscripts, including footnotes, should contain between 10,000 and 11,500 words (approximately 35 to 40 pages). “Instructions for Authors” are available here: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/jaah/instruct. For inquiries, please contact [email protected] or guest editors Kaye Whitehead, [email protected], and Daryl Scott, [email protected].
January 1, 2025, is the deadline for manuscript submissions.