NAACP Black History Parade recognizing and honoring the central role of African Americans in U.S. history on Saturday. Black History Month began as “Negro History Week,” which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. Woodson chose the second week of February because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.