Stony Brook University Celebrates 100 Years of Black History Month

In 1926, historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson helped establish "Negro History Week," held the second week of February because it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14), whom Black communities had celebrated since the late 19th century.

Stony Brook University marked the centennial of Woodson's celebration - now known as Black History Month - with its opening ceremony February 4 at the Stony Brook Union. Students, faculty and staff gathered not just to observe tradition, but to reaffirm that the contributions of the African Diaspora remain central to Stony Brook's global academic and cultural narrative.

Throughout the month, Stony Brook will observe the 2026 national theme established by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, "A Century of Black History Commemorations," with events that honor the past, celebrate the present and imagine the future through academic exploration, cultural expression and community engagement.

The opening procession began the Student Activities Center (SAC) Plaza, and the formal inauguration of Black History Month took place in the Stony Brook Union Ballroom. Keynote addresses were delivered by Jarrett Drake and Jazmen Moore, assistant professors in the Department of Africana Studies, each offering a critical exploration of the evolution and impact of Black history commemorations and Woodson's enduring vision.

The opening ceremony also featured a dance performance by the Diamond Wolfettes, a majorette team founded with the mission of bringing a new dance style to the Stony Brook community and providing a safe space to dance for women of color.

Woodson, born to formerly enslaved parents, earned a PhD from Harvard in 1912, the second African American to achieve this, following W.E.B. Du Bois and the first person of enslaved parentage to earn a PhD in history in the United States. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915.

"Woodson's most well-known work is 'The Mis-education of the Negro' and he also wrote a very important book called 'The History of the Negro Church," said Drake. "But his book entitled 'The Negro in Our History' was watershed at the time of its release in 1922 because there had never been an academically trained social scientist who put the question out, 'Do you remember the time when we, who are now called Negroes, now called Black, lived in a different time in a different place on the African continent?"

Drake said that in Africa, there was no term for what we now know as 'Negro,' and little introspection on what it meant to be Black.

"Prior to Dr. Woodson, there was no scholar who was asking questions about the African origins of Black people in the Americas," said Drake. "By taking that first leap, he allowed others to do more thorough work a little bit later."

Moore highlighted Woodson's commitment to combating Black erasure in education and his collaborative efforts with Black teachers to create resources and curriculum. She began by asking attendees if they had opportunities to learn about Black history and culture during their school years. Approximately half the room raised their hands.

"I think Woodson intended his work to be something that we engaged in continuously, and for it to not have been stifled to one week or one month, even though he was creating those opportunities for us to celebrate," she said.

Moore noted that Woodson was very much committed to eradicating the idea of Black erasure in the classroom, and saw Black educators who were working diligently to combat the erasure of Black life, but they didn't have the resources that they needed to support their work.

"In 1927 Woodson observed that in practically all of the schoolhouses of Europe and America, there was not a picture on the wall or a book on the shelf to show that a Negro had ever achieved anything, and he was incensed," she said. "He set out to change that.'"

Moore spoke of how Woodson worked collaboratively with fellow members of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and the Black teacher organizations to ensure that Black teachers, especially those in the South, had a safe space to come together. The effort encouraged them to think about their pedagogy and work on curriculum together, but also ensure that they weren't just going to be regurgitating the type of curriculum that state boards wanted them to, which often left out a Black perspective.

"Our history wasn't taken seriously and he worked with them to create and distribute classroom and curriculum resources - including textbooks, pamphlets, graphics, posters you could hang on the walls - that centered Black history and culture in order to challenge that erasure of Black life," said Moore. "Black teachers would even develop covert methods to teach these resources engaging in acts of fugitive pedagogy to ensure their students received a Black-affirming education. It was not uncommon in the South, during the Jim Crow era, for people who were not even educators from outside the community to come into Black schools to observe. It was a form of surveillance."

Moore also acknowledged the contributions of Black students and alumni at Stony Brook in establishing the Africana Studies Department, and encouraged the audience to continue Woodson's legacy by building and sustaining spaces that affirm Blackness and its multifaceted identities.

"This event marks an amazing milestone," said Donna-Lee Mahabeer, director of Diversity, Intercultural and Community Engagement (DICE) at Stony Brook. "This is a centennial and we are community building. In times such as these, it seems like we're on borrowed time with Black History Month. I'm grateful that this could happen, and I'm grateful that you are all still invested in celebrating this culture and this tradition at Stony Brook."

DICE and its partners will host a wide range of events, including lectures, cultural performances, panel discussions and community engagement opportunities. A full calendar of events is available on SBEngaged. More information can be found on the Black History Month website.

- Robert Emproto