Since 1924, Black history has been celebrated in February. Initially created in the US as “Negro Achievement Week” by the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the period was chosen to align with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on February 12th and Frederick Douglas on February 14. In 1976, the celebration was expanded to the entire month of February by US President, Gerald Ford. Later, in 1995, MP Jean Augustine introduced a motion that was passed unanimously by the House of Commons to recognize Black History Month across Canada.

We believe now is the time to move this celebration to a month that not only takes into account the important historical events of the distant past, but also those that took place within the last century.

We are proposing that both the US and Canada move Black History Month from February to August. August is a month that aligns with many important dates in Black history, including but not limited to the following:

August 2014 - The murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer led to large-scale protests in the city and to the use of the slogan, “Hands Up, Don't Shoot.” It also gave international prominence to the Black Lives Matter Movement.

August 1965 - The Voting Rights Act 1965 was signed into law, removing discriminatory voting practices in the US that were largely passed in Southern states after the Civil War. The Act has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation passed by Congress.

August 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington to more than 250,000 civil rights supporters. The speech is considered the defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement and is among the most influential speeches in American history. 
 
August 1955 - Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black child from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi, was murdered for allegedly whistling to a white woman, violating the racial codes of the Jim Crow South. The brutality of the murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violence against Black people in the US. 

August 1834: Emancipation Day, celebrated on August 1 in Canada and the Caribbean, marks the end of the enslavement of African people in the British Empire.