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How It Started - A look at how African-Americans started — and continued — celebrating their achievements in February. — Erin E. EvansFifty years after slavery was abolished, Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization on a mission to promote the achievements of Black Americans and people of African descent.(Photos from left: Courtesy of WikiCommons, Public Domain)

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A Week-Only Affair - The ASNLH (now called the ASALH) sponsored the first Negro History Week in 1926, and chose to commemorate the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both born in the second week of February. (Photos: Courtesy of WikiCommons)

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Official Recognition - By the 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into Black History Month on several college campuses, and in 1976 President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized February as Black History Month in America. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

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Thematic Celebrations - This year’s theme, “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington," [PDF] focuses on the anniversaries of two important dates — 100 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after the March on Washington. Mary Frances Berry will speak at the ASALH luncheon on Feb. 23 in Washington, D.C.(Photo: UPI/Kevin Dietsch /Landov) 

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Celebrating Black Women - Last year’s theme was Black Women in American Culture and History. Dr. Johnetta B. Cole, director of the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African-American History, was the guest speaker. (Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for the Jackie Robinson Foundation)

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Black History the World Over - Canadians also celebrate Black History Month in February. In the U.K., Black Britons celebrate in October. (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

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I Don't Need No Stinkin' Black History Month - Black History Month has had its critics. In 2005, Morgan Freeman called the celebration “ridiculous.”  “I don’t want a Black history month. Black history is American history.” (Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

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White History Month? - In 2012, students at Mercer University posted flyers dedicating November and December as White History Months.(Photo: WMAZ) 

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R.I.P., Carter G. Woodson - Woodson, the father of Black history and the second Black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, died in 1950.(Photo: Courtesy Wikicommons)

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History Resides - Today, Woodson’s organization, the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, resides on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Courtesy of Howard University)