2026 has dawned as a momentous red-letter year for American history. As most know by now, the United States already has launched America250, its supersized patriotic bash to commemorate its 250th anniversary as a proud independent nation.

What far fewer of us recognize, however, is that another proud cultural phenomenon literally seeped in history will mark its milestone 100th anniversary this weekend on Feb. 1. That observance, of course, is Black History Month.

The roots of Black History Month date to 1926, when revered Dr. Carter G. Woodson and his Association for the Study of African American Life and History first declared Negro History Week, timed to encompass the February birthdays of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass and venerated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Over the decades, the observance expanded to one full month and spread to all corners of our country.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of former President Gerald Ford making Black History Month an official federally designated observance in 1976.

The proud tradition of the observance plays out throughout the month in the Mahoning Valley, Ohio and the nation. As it does, we urge people of all races and backgrounds to recognize its importance to an inclusive and accurate portrayal of this nation’s past.

“A Century of Black History Commemorations” has been selected as the theme behind 2026 observances throughout Ohio and nationwide.

The association that Woodson founded said it invites the nation and the world over the next four weeks to reflect on the power of remembrance and how black history commemorations have transformed identity, inspired progress and preserved truths about the black experience — some laudable, some shameful — against attempts at erasure.

On that compelling topic, the Valley joins the nation in this monthlong commemoration with a bounty of special lectures, performances and forums at local colleges and universities, public schools, historical societies, public libraries, black churches and other venues. Check this newspaper or its website for a full listing of BHM events and activities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties this month.

Statewide, the Supreme Court of Ohio will livestream for all its celebratory program titled “A Century of Black History Commemorations” at 1 p.m. Feb. 10 from the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center in Columbus.

The program will examine how black history has been studied and observed in the Buckeye State and will highlight achievements of notable Black Ohioans. Did you know, for example, that African-American Garrett Morgan of Cleveland invented the three-position traffic signal in1923? Or that Black Brigade of Cincinnat became the first U.S. military unit of black soldiers to serve in the Civil War.

ASALH National President Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead recently noted the enduring value of such Black History Month programming: “At this critical historical moment — when many forces have tried to whitewash American history, or eradicate it altogether in some parts of the country — ASALH affirms its commitment to protect, preserve, promote and proclaim Black history.”

The observance also rightly continues to draw attention to the historic and present-day black experience in America. Sadly, some of that experience remains mired in struggle, bias and tension.

The struggle endures in poverty rates that are 2.5 times as high for blacks than whites with median wealth of black households less than one-tenth that of white households. It endures in lower graduation rates and subpar public schools in too many black communities. It endures in disturbingly and unacceptably high rates of black infant mortality in our region and state.

And it endures most viciously in lingering attitudes among relatively small pockets of society that black lives still do not matter as much as white lives do.

Those and other enduring inequities testify to the need to continue the monthlong observance that always has had advancing social progress as its bedrock foundation.

To be sure, however, since the first Negro History Week, African-Americans have made great strides in gaining the civil rights so long denied them and in entering the mainstream of American society.

BHM has played a key role in that progress, and it continues to help bulldoze racist stereotypes, to promote empathy, fairness and inclusion and to ensure that the mass of Americans recognize American history as a shared, vibrant and multi-dimensional history. As such, its poignance remains valuable to the past, present and future course of this nation.

SCRIPTURE (for sun 2-1)

You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:37 NASB