Black History Month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. Since 1976, it is celebrated annually in the United States of America and Canada in February and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the month of October. In the U.S., Black History Month is also referred to as African-American History Month.

The remembrance has its roots in 1926 by United States historian Carter G. Woodson as "Negro History Week".^[1] Woodson chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

(... from Wikipedia on 2010-09-03 21:03:50 )