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Black History Month

Black History Month Honors Determination and Triumph

Washington -- Each February, Black History Month honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating obstacles -- slavery, prejudice, poverty – as well as their contributions to the nation’s cultural and political life.

2008 marks the 82nd annual celebration since Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, instituted Negro History Week in 1926.  He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.   (more)

Presidential Proclamation
Museums Preserving Black History, Culture

Americans Celebrate Achievements of Martin Luther King Jr.


  "I have a dream"(© AP Images)

                                                     

Americans on each third Monday of January honor the life and achievements of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., (1929–1968), the 1964 Nobel Peace laureate and the individual most associated with the triumphs of the African-American civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. As political organizer, supremely skilled orator and advocate of nonviolent protest, King was pivotal in persuading his fellow Americans to end the legal segregation that prevailed throughout the South and parts of other regions, and in sparking support for the civil rights legislation that established the legal framework for racial equality in the United States.

Mutimedia

  • The U.S. Civil Rights Movement    (Photo Gallery)
  • The Making of American People    (Photo Gallery)
  • "Free At Last" - Martin Luther King Jr    (Audio)

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    Publications

     What we are today?
    American identity cannot be defined according to racial, ethnic or even historic factors, because U.S. citizens come from virtually every ethnic and religious community in the world.  The core that unites the diverse peoples of the United States more resembles a conscious assent by the individual to the founding principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

     

     

     

     

     

     

    		Justice For All: The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall
    The name of Thurgood Marshall may not be as well-known outside the United States as that of his fellow civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. And yet, Marshall's achievement in demolishing the legal structure that sustained racial segregation in the American South advanced the civil rights cause as profoundly as the nonviolent protests led by King.

     

     Women of Influence
    In recent years more and more societies all over the world have begun to recognize the vital contributions of women to commerce, their communities, and civic life. Whether it be Afghan women voting in a presidential election or women starting micro-businesses in Ethiopia, the worldwide trend toward greater equality is clear. Yet “the denial of women’s basic human rights is persistent and widespread,” as a 2005 United Nations Population Fund statement put it.

     

    Free At Last

    Among the antiquities displayed at the United Nations headquarters in New York is a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder. Named for Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian Empire and conqueror of Babylonia, the document dates to about 539 B.C. Cyrus guaranteed to his subjects many of what we today call civil rights, among them freedom of religion and protection of personal property.

     

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