First Negro History Week

CTL-E-0245 · Event · 1926-02

Verified evidence grade of this record

First national Negro History Week launched in February 1926 by Carter G. Woodson through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History; precursor to Black History Month.

Relationships

Wabash Avenue YMCA — held at
In February 1926 Carter G. Woodson walked into the Wabash YMCA in Bronzeville to announce the creation of Negro History Week, the predecessor of Black History Month.

Sources

Smithsonian NMAAHC: Negro History Week origins
Smithsonian NMAH: Dr. Carter Woodson's Negro History Week

Record CTL-E-0245 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: PLACE-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “First Negro History Week (CTL-E-0245),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-0245/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The Black press and the hands that kept the record. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Gwendolyn Brooks, portraitPhoto: John Mathew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ida B. Wells — portrait from ‘Women of Distinction’ (1893)Photo: Public Domain (from ‘Women of Distinction,’ 1893), via Wikimedia Commons

Door of the historic Chicago Defender Building, ChicagoPhoto: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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