Black History Month 2026 in 4 Parts

February 4, 2026

Good Afternoon All,

This week marks the commencement of Black History Month. This is the centennial of the initiative started by Carter G. Woodson, the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History as Negro History Week, in 1926. In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued a proclamation designating February as Black History Month, transforming the recognition into a month-long celebration. Subsequently, in 1986, Congress, 60 years after Woodson’s initial call, enacted legislation designating February as Black History Month.

Lawrence has recognized Negro History Week since the inception of the idea. In 1926, Lincoln Elementary School spearheaded a series of school programs and lessons, culminating in a community lecture delivered by Rev. G. N. Jackson, the minister at Ninth Street Baptist Church. Building upon Woodson’s legacy and Lincoln Elementary School’s efforts, Lawrence schools, community churches, and organizations have consistently recognized and celebrated Negro History Week and Black History Month through various programs and educational opportunities over the past century. Notably, in 1968, Black students at the University of Kansas invited Lincoln University professor Lorenzo Greene to campus to deliver a lecture titled, “Negro History and the Truth Shall Set You Free.”

Regrettably, we must revisit the counsel of Dr. Greene. A century after Dr. Woodson’s inauguration of Negro History Week, the teaching of Black History, or more broadly, Black Studies, faces significant challenges. This is not the first instance in American history where the academic pursuits and educational practices of teaching and researching Black history have been targeted. However, today, through concerted efforts at the federal, state, and local levels, these attacks have gained unprecedented momentum.

The Department of African and African-American Studies (AAAS), a fifty-seven-year-old department at the University of Kansas, has consistently dedicated itself to imparting knowledge about the lives, culture, and history of Africa and the African Diaspora. We provide a comprehensive range of educational offerings, including classes, lectures, community outreach programs, public scholarship, and academic publications, to support this mission throughout the academic year. We unequivocally support the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in its endeavors to teach, research, and preserve Black History, which played a pivotal role in shaping the American narrative.

Although we are willing to undertake this endeavor, it is imperative that we do so collaboratively. Black History Month, and the comprehensive study and instruction of Black history, life, and culture, transcends the boundaries of a solitary project. It represents a collective commitment to understanding the world we inhabit today. To comprehend the complexities of our present, we must delve into the historical narratives of Africa and the African Diaspora from diverse perspectives and sources of knowledge.

Notably, the deliberate erasure of the Black past in America impedes our ability to fully grasp the American past, or the broader historical and cultural evolution of the world as we perceive and live it. This erasure contributes to a miseducation of both the national and the global communities, a phenomenon that AAAS scholars and the broader AAAS community unequivocally oppose.

We cordially invite you to participate in our sponsored and co-sponsored programming during February and throughout the year. Our initiatives commence with a lecture by Daniel Atkinson on a Lawrence native, George “Nash” Walker, on Thursday evening at the Hall Center. These programs extend beyond the month of February, encompassing a series of lectures, classes, public scholarship, and academic publications throughout the calendar year. Please join us this month and every month as we teach and celebrate the importance and central nature of the Black past.

In solidarity.

Shawn Leigh Alexander

February 9, 2026

Good Afternoon All,

As we enter the second week of Black History Month, I am thinking of Dr. John Hope Franklin and the project and struggle of studying and writing Black History. In 1947, Dr. Franklin published the first edition of From Slavery to Freedom. Since then, Franklin, Alfred Moss, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham have published 9 more editions of the pathbreaking textbook. (Pictured are editions 2-10, 1963-2021.) Many of us have taught one or more of these editions or were assigned one of these textbooks in a class over the years. 

In these textbooks, we can see the gains and losses, the triumphs and setbacks over the nearly 80-year publishing record of From Slavery to Freedom. The second edition came out in 1963, sixteen years after the first. In 1947, CORE had launched their Journey of Reconciliation, Jackie Robinson “broke the color barrier” in baseball, Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights released their “To Secure these Rights” report, and W. E. B. Du Bois submitted a petition to the United Nations highlighting America’s human rights violations against Black citizens. In 1963, the nation had nearly a decade of the “Modern Civil Rights Movement,” but it was also the year of the Birmingham Campaign, the assassination of Medgar Evers, and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 

Fifty-eight years later, the tenth edition (2021) addressed “Shifting Terrains in the New Century,” which included the nation’s first Black president, the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, but also attacks on voting rights, education access, and environmental racism. Lurking in the background, because of the manner textbooks follow a publishing timeline, is the election of Trump. A topic that will have to be dealt with, if the book is still published by McGraw-Hill, in the eleventh edition.

The ten editions of From Slavery to Freedom are a testament to the power of writing and publishing Black history. Individually and collectively, these books tell us what has transpired in America over the past 75 years, but at the same time, they tell the history of the United States from the origins of the American experiment to the present. Among other things, they tell the history of glorious African kingdoms and communities, in “Ancestral Africa,” through the development of multiple Black Diasporic culture(s) that have transformed, informed, and enhanced the Western Hemisphere in ways most cannot or refuse to recognize, i.e., the brilliant historical and cultural lesson Bad Bunny put on display in Santa Clara last night at the Super Bowl.

One hundred years after Woodson asked us to recognize the history, culture, and lives of Black America with Negro History Week, we must ask ourselves why the teaching and learning of Black History is still controversial. In response, within our schools and communities, we must continue to teach and learn from books like From Slavery to Freedom. We must fight for academic freedom and the ability to teach Black History and Black Studies. We celebrate Black History not only in February but throughout the year and will continue to do so whether or not it is supported in the classrooms or by legislatures.

In solidarity,

Shawn

February 17, 2026

Good Afternoon All,

As we enter the third week of Black History Month, I reflect on the century-long struggle of Dr. Carter G. Woodson and simultaneously acknowledge how much things have changed in only one decade. This demonstrates that the struggle is perpetual, regardless of the transformative and powerful nature of a particular moment, year, or period.

A decade ago, this month, the Super Bowl was held at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California. That year, the halftime performers were the British band, Coldplay, but the viewers were surprised by a stellar performance by Beyoncé as she performed her new single “Formation,” dressed in tribute to Michael Jackson and the Black Panther Party. Later that year, she would release her “Lemonade” album, and her sister, Solange, would release her impactful, “A Seat at the Table.”

Throughout the year, several significant and transformative books were published, including Carol Anderson’s White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racial Ideas in America, and Colin Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. These works received critical acclaim, garnered numerous awards, and at one point or another, all visited KU’s campus over the next few years to discuss their work and more.

In the fall of that year, the University of Kansas selected Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 book, Between the World and Me, as its Common Book. This decision was partially a response to the student activism, spearheaded by the group known as Rock Chalk Invisible Chalk, which exposed the racial climate on campus during the 2015 and 2016 academic years.

In the summer of 2016, the nation was further shaken by two more high-profile racial murders. On consecutive days in July, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were tragically killed. These murders followed an unprecedented series of killings in the nation, which had been increasingly captured on camera, and widely disseminated on the decade-old social media platform, Twitter. The exposure and subsequent discussions surrounding racial killings, particularly those perpetrated by law enforcement, prompted Colin Kaepernick and his San Francisco teammate, Eric Reid, to kneel during the national anthem at NFL games as a symbolic protest against police brutality.

In the same month that Kaepernick first took a knee, the Smithsonian Institution inaugurated the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). A project that had been in the works for over fifty years, but had only been actively pursued for a decade, encompassing construction and the acquisition of its extensive holdings. The museum’s opening was a cultural phenomenon, with long lines of visitors encircling the building on the National Mall and free tickets “selling out” for months.

During the dedication ceremony, President Barack Obama, who was serving the final year of his second term, stated:

“This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are. It helps us better understand the lives, yes, of the President, but also the slave; the industrialist, but also the porter; the keeper of the status quo, but also the activist seeking to overthrow that status quo; the teacher or the cook, alongside the statesman.”

Ten years later, the current occupant of the White House has asserted that the NMAAHC is “out of control” and is promoting “divisive” “anti-American ideology.” As part of this attack and a larger stance, this administration has removed books from military base schools and libraries, removed or reworded National Park Historic Sites websites and programs, and most recently removed an exhibit at the President’s House in Philadelphia that discussed the nine individuals enslaved by George Washington. Additionally, national, state, and local governments have enacted laws that dictate the curriculum in schools. These laws often label various concepts as “woke,” “DEI,” or “Critical Race Theory,” without providing a clear definition of these terms or demonstrating their relevance to the issues they purport to address.

Over the past decade, several significant changes have occurred, but the attacks on Black History and Culture stand out as particularly concerning. The attempts to redefine or erase the meanings of Black culture and history are devastating, damaging, and dangerous. 

As we examine these changes, we must question the underlying reasons for their occurrence and explore effective strategies to counteract them.

For instance, consider the contrasting experiences of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. In 2016, he visited the public library in Lawrence as a guest of the African & African-American Studies and the Langston Hughes Center without any threats or security concerns. However, in 2021, he returned to the Lied Center to speak to a packed audience but required police escorts and a locked-down backroom due to death threats for the publication of books that addressed racism in America and offered guidance on becoming “anti-racist.”

One hundred years ago, Carter G. Woodson envisioned that the education provided during Negro History Week could enhance the nation’s understanding of the central role of Black History in the American narrative. As President Obama aptly stated in 2016, this history could provide a “richer and fuller story of who we are.” A decade and a century later, we continue to strive to convey this story and prevent its erasure or attack. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to this cause despite the miseducation, threats, distortion, and lies.

In solidarity,

Shawn

February 23, 2026

Good Afternoon All,

As we enter the fourth and final week of Black History Month, I am thinking about Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, who was born one hundred and fifty-eight years ago today. Dr. Du Bois stands as one of the most eminent intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was a “citizen of the world as well as the United States of America,” asserting his right to know, think, and express the truth as he perceived it. He vehemently opposed “men and nations that judge human beings based on their color, religious beliefs, or income.” Furthermore, he was an individual who believed in the world that he, his contemporaries, and future generations were, and continue to create. He harbored a profound concern for the well-being of future generations, envisioning a world devoid of color prejudice, the devastation of war, and the sting of inequality. In essence, he persistently endeavored to transform the world into a more just, equitable, and righteous place. Despite this individual and collective struggle, which encompassed among numerous other items, the publication of over twenty books spanning poetry, literature, social, historical, economic, and political inquiry, many of which emerged during the latter part of his life, the influence of Du Bois remains largely unknown or unacknowledged by many Americans.

In 1921, W.E.B. Du Bois embarked on a brief lecture tour through Kansas, including a stop in Lawrence. On March 18th, he delivered a speech at Ninth Street Baptist Church, located down the hill from the university campus. Numerous other prominent Black intellectuals have also visited Lawrence and the University of Kansas, yet they have received little to no historical recognition or commemoration. Notably, Ida B. Wells delivered a speech at St. Luke Church in 1895 as part of her A Red Record, anti-lynching speaking tour. Paul Lawrence Dunbar also visited the city after delivering a lecture at Baker University in 1903. These, and many others, are significant historical events that should be remembered and celebrated to preserve the history of Lawrence and Douglas County.

In the current issue of KU Today, a brief article was published commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Kansas Memorial Union and outlining the planned anniversary events and discussions. However, it remains unclear whether any event will address the segregation that existed within the Union for several years after its establishment. When Black musicians, such as Luther Henderson’s Orchestra, performed in the Union in 1938, only white students, faculty, and community members were permitted to attend. For certain performances and lectures, Blacks were allowed to attend, provided they occupied a segregated section. Additionally, African American students were segregated from other students in the Memorial Union for meals. 

Numerous students expressed their concerns regarding discrimination to campus leadership and even to Du Bois himself, writing letters to the NAACP leader at The Crisis. In late 1930, nearly a decade after his visit to the city, Du Bois wrote to Chancellor Ernest H. Lindley inquiring about the accusations of discrimination on KU’s campus by students. In response to the inquiry, Lindley did not deny the existence of segregation of students on campus, specifically the Memorial Union. However, he did inform Du Bois that he hailed from a lineage of prominent abolitionists from Pennsylvania and that while segregation existed in the Union, he occasionally sat in the segregated area to serve as an example that it was acceptable. He did not end the segregation, which he undoubtedly had the authority to do, but rather sat there “from time to time.”

Du Bois responded to Chancellor Lindley, expressing gratitude for his “frank letter” and inquiring if he could publish it in The Crisis alongside the “letter of complaint.” Ten days later, after consultation and consideration, Lindley requested that the letter not be published as “there would be no advantage to our colored students” in publishing “my confidential letter.”

During the 1930s, Carter G. Woodson was surprised to encounter a Black Kansan at the University of Nebraska. When he inquired about the student’s decision to leave Kansas, the Free State, to attend school in Nebraska, the student explained that segregation was prevalent at the university in Lawrence. The father of Black History Month was deeply shocked by this interaction and subsequently penned a brief editorial about the encounter.

These pivotal moments in the history of Lawrence and the University of Kansas warrant our attention. It is imperative that we interrogate why they are often omitted from the narratives we construct about our city, county, or university. We must commit ourselves to perpetuating the teaching, writing, and support of Black History beyond the confines of this month. The Department of African and African-American Studies exemplifies this commitment through its consistent efforts. Regardless of the prevailing power structures, we will continue to uphold the legacy of figures like Woodson and Du Bois, Black students at KU, and more, engaging in educational endeavors, public lectures, and any other avenues that present themselves.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Du Bois. Happy Black History Month.

In Solidarity,

Shawn