WASHINGTON (February 2, 2026) – The month of February not only marks the beginning of Black History Month, it also marks 100 years since it was first created in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The month long celebration first started as a week of learning and recognition originally called Negro History Week. Now, a century later the month is still used to do the same but also prompts recognition of what has been accomplished and progress matters today.
Experts at the George Washington University across several departments are available to provide context and analysis. To schedule an interview, please contact Skyler Sales at skylers
gwu [dot] edu (skylers[at]gwu[dot]edu)
Eric Arnesen is the Teamsters Professor of History of the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. He specializes in the history of race, labor, politics, and civil rights. Among his books are Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality (2001), which received the 2001 Wesley-Logan Prize in Diaspora History from the AHA and the ASAALH, and Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863-1923 (1991), which won the AHA’s John H. Dunning Prize.
Quito Swan is a professor of Africana Studies and History of the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. He is a public facing scholar of Black internationalism and the African Diaspora, he has single authored three books—Pasifika Black: Oceania, Anti-Colonialism and the African World (New York University Press, 2022), Pauulu’s Diaspora: Black Internationalism and Environmental Justice (University Press of Florida, 2020) and Black Power in Bermuda: The Struggle for Decolonization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Pasifika Black received the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 2023 Best Book in African American History Award. Pauulu’s Diaspora won the African American Intellectual History Society’s 2022 Pauli Murray Book Prize.
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