First Day of Black History Month

Is First Day of Black History Month a Public Holiday?

This is not a public holiday. Government and public offices, businesses, and schools are not closed for this observation but may hold special events and outreach programs to commemorate the beginning of the month-long annual observation.

Black History Month (1970)

The Black United Students first Black culture center, Kuumba House in Kent State, where many events of the first Black History Month celebration took place.
Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University first proposed Black History Month in February 1969. The first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State a year later, from January 2 to February 28, 1970.

Six years later, Black History Month was being celebrated all across the country in educational institutions, centers of Black culture, and community centers, both great and small, when President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month in 1976, during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. He urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history