Founders of Black History Month bring annual conference to Atlanta

Work has always been at the center of the Black experience in America — from the stolen labor of enslavement to the organizing struggles of today.

The conference’s theme, “African Americans and Labor,” will explore the ways work — whether free or unfree, skilled or unskilled, vocational or voluntary — has shaped Black life across centuries.

New Jobs Forum to talk about employment in the black community, including tech entrepreneurship. (AJC File)

“That’s exactly why we’re convening — to discuss these numbers in the context of historical patterns and understand how they’re affecting people today. Behind those numbers are countless stories,” said Zebulon Miletsky, associate professor of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University and chair of ASALH’s marketing and communications committee.

At the same time, cultural battles over the teaching of race and history continue to escalate. Earlier this month, the National Park Service was ordered to remove exhibits related to slavery, citing a March executive order from President Donald Trump directing the Interior Department to strip away content that “disparages Americans past or living.”

The devastating photograph, taken in 1863 of a formerly enslaved man named Peter, shows his scarred and beaten back — remnants of his days in bondage. Abolitionists used the image as a key piece of evidence against the horrors of slavery.

Against this backdrop, ASALH leaders say their gathering will serve as both a scholarly exchange and a public forum on the meaning of work in Black life.

Sharita Jacobs-Thompson, a full-time professor at Prince George’s Community College, said the removal of the photograph is not just the erasure of a single image but part of a broader attempt to reshape the story of Black history.

Sharita Jacobs-Thompson, a full-time professor at Prince George’s Community College, said the removal of the photograph is not just the erasure of a single image but part of a broader attempt to reshape the story of Black history. (Courtesy of ASALH)

“I conduct tours at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and I’ve seen firsthand the attempts to reshape how Black history is presented. It’s sad but predictable, echoing patterns seen in the late 1800s and early 1900s when scholars at major institutions framed slavery as civilizing,” Jacobs-Thompson said. “But those efforts won’t stop the deep connection African Americans have to their history — genealogy and family history matter. Organizations like ASALH are critical in filling that gap, exactly what Woodson envisioned: correcting the record and producing new scholarship.”

Carter G. Woodson was a historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. In 1920, Woodson spoke at the fraternity's Ninth Conclave in the auditorium of Meharry Medical College. He mentioned the Negro’s neglect of his history, in fact his ignorance of it, and urged the college man to give less attention to social affairs and devote more of his time to the study and dissemination of facts about Negro life and history. Omega, at the Nashville Conclave, in honor of Woodson and appreciating the value of his work, decided to throw the strength of the entire organization behind an effort to inform the Negro of his past, to inspire race pride and thus stimulate noble racial achievement.  In February 1926 he announced the celebration of "Negro History Week", considered the precursor of Black History Month. His most famous work was "The Mis-Education of the Negro," in 1933. (AJC File)

Under Woodson’s leadership, the ASALH created key research and publication outlets for Black scholars, including the “Journal of Negro History” (1916) and the “Negro History Bulletin” (1937).

In 1926, Woodson launched Negro History Week, timed to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. That observance was later expanded to the full month of February in 1976. Today, ASALH continues to shape Black History Month by providing annual themes that guide scholars, historians, organizations, and media outlets in their teaching and coverage.

Black History: Carter G. Woodson. (AJC File)

Members of ASALH at the 2024 annual convention. The organization, founded in 1915 has about 5,000 members. (Courtesy of ASALH)