NYFA Celebrates Black History Month
Campus:
In February, we celebrate and observe Black History Month. The theme for Black History Month in 2026, is "A Century of Black History Commemorations," marking 100 years since the first Black History Week in 1926. This theme explores the historical impact and evolution of celebrating Black history, encouraging reflection on its role in shaping identity, fostering pride, and advancing equality, while also highlighting the ongoing struggle for inclusive historical recognition.
Change makers in Black History
Claudette Colvin was a civil rights activist who, before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. The then-15-year-old was arrested on March 2, 1955, and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, a landmark federal court case that ruled Montgomery’s segregated bus system was unconstitutional. Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse’s aide before retiring in 2004. Over six decades after Colvin’s courageous act, an Alabama judge expunged her juvenile arrest record in 2021.
Carter G. Woodson, the founder of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), established the first “Negro History Week” in February 1926. As the son of former slaves and the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Woodson recognized the importance of establishing an annual national commemoration. Woodson specifically designed the week to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, as a coordinated effort to develop a curriculum and advance Black history instruction across the nation's public schools and communities. This effort is what we now come to know as Black History Month.
Dr. Gladys West, one of the hidden figures and mathematicians who played an integral part in creating the mathematical foundation for today’s GPS system. West worked at the Naval Surface Warfare Center for years, where she spent her time calculating precise models of Earth’s shape, which was the basis of what modern GPS calculations were built on. With her hire, she became the second Black woman hired at the base and the fourth Black person overall to be there. In 2018, she was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame and in 2021; she received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award, the Prince Philip Medal by the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering, and the National Museum of the Surface Navy’s Freedom of the Seas Exploration and Innovation Award.
How to Observe Black History Month
This Black History Month, take the time to learn about the community, read through history, and converse with others!
Explore Black History.
Learn more about Black History Month.
Dive into African American Art.
Check out work by NYFA Faculty.
Discover Black Photographers, Animators, and Game Designers
Read books written by Black Authors
Expand Your Watchlist: Discover and Add Films from NYFA's 'Black History Through Films & TV' Letterboxd List
Portrait of Alma Thomas in her studio.
Photograph by Ida Jervis ©1971, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution