Black History Month has been observed in the US for nearly 100 years. Two years after the death of civil rights advocate Frederick Douglass on 20 February 1895, Washington DC schools started to celebrate what would later be referred to as Douglass Day.
Educator and activist Mary Church Terrell suggested at a school board meeting for Black schools in the DC region on 12 January 1897 that a holiday be put in place to celebrate the life of Mr Douglass. The date chosen was 14 February, the day he observed as his birthday after being born into slavery and not knowing his precise date of birth.
