30 Years in Canada. 100 Years in the U.S. Why Black History Month Still Exists

This year marks a rare historical intersection: 30 years of Black History Month in Canada and 100 years since its origins in the United States. Milestones like this are more than anniversaries. They are checkpoints.

They push us to ask a harder question than celebration alone. At a time when history itself feels debated, narrowed, and politicized across parts of North America, what does Black History Month actually mean now?

Where it began

Black History Month traces its roots to 1926, when historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week in the United States. His goal was simple and radical: to ensure Black contributions were studied, documented, and taken seriously in formal education. He believed a nation that ignored its full history could never fully understand itself.

The week expanded into a month in 1976 during the U.S. Bicentennial, when it received official nationwide recognition.

In Canada, Black History Month was formally recognized in 1996 after a motion introduced by Jean Augustine, the first Black Canadian woman elected to Parliament. Her work ensured that Black Canadian history — often overlooked in mainstream narratives — would have a permanent place in the national consciousness.

Both movements responded to absence. They were acts of preservation. Acts of resistance. Acts of truth-telling.

What it means in this moment

We are marking these anniversaries at a time when conversations about race, equity, and history are increasingly contested across parts of North America. Efforts to narrow how history is taught or acknowledged remind us why Black History Month exists in the first place.

History does not disappear because it is debated.
It does not vanish because it is uncomfortable.
And it cannot be erased simply because some would prefer not to see it.

Black history is not a niche topic or a side chapter. It is world history — inseparable from North American and Canadian history. It tells a story of innovation, resistance, migration, labour, art, leadership, and survival, woven into every major institution and movement that shaped the societies we live in.

Black History Month reminds us that memory requires stewardship.

Beyond programming

There is nothing wrong with events, panels, or learning sessions. Education matters. Visibility matters. Gathering matters. But when Black History Month becomes only a seasonal activity, it risks becoming symbolic instead of transformative.

The question is not whether organizations host events in February.
The question is what happens in March?

• Do we carry forward the learning?
• Do we invest in equitable systems year-round?
• Do we make space for Black voices outside commemorative moments?
• Do we treat Black history as foundational knowledge rather than optional enrichment?

Black History Month is not meant to contain Black history. It is meant to spotlight what should already be integrated into our understanding of the world!

A living history

Black History Month is not a seasonal campaign. It is an invitation to practice historical honesty all year long.

Read the books. Teach the stories. Question incomplete narratives. Support Black educators, artists, historians, and institutions doing the work of preservation. Carry February forward into the rest of the year.

Because history survives when people insist on remembering it.