This year’s festival will celebrate the theme of A Century of Black History Commemorations, STARTING FEBRUARY 1st, 2026.
2026 marks a century of national commemorations of Black history. Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, George Cleveland Hall, William D. Hartgrove, Jesse E. Moorland, Alexander L. Jackson, and James E. Stamps institutionalized the teaching, study, dissemination, and commemoration of Black history when they founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) on September 9, 1915.
In 1925, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson planned the inaugural week-long observance of Black history, he could have hardly anticipated the imprint he would leave on the world. From Negro History Week to Black History Month, ASALH has carried forth the tradition and the observances have become part of the wolf and warp of American culture and increasingly the global community. For its 100th theme, the Founders of Black History Month urges us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history and life commemorations in transforming the status of Black peoples in the modern world.
