Who Started Black History Month In The UK?
By
2 weeks ago
Here's how to get involved
October marks Black History Month, the annual celebration of the history, contributions and achievements of Black people in the UK. Every year, numerous events celebrating African and Caribbean cultures take place across the country. Here’s what you need to know about this important month.
What Is Black History Month?
Having originated in the States, Black History Month is an annual observance remembering and highlighting important people and events in the African diaspora. It dates back to 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson at the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) proposed the second week of February would be ‘Negro History Week’. Woodson chose this week as it covered the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, and it wasn’t until 1976 that the week grew into a month-long celebration, with President Gerald Ford looking to ‘honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history’.
Celebrating the rich cultural heritage and triumphs of Black people and remembering the adversities they’ve faced throughout the US’s history, the annual month was adopted by the UK for the first time in 1987 and includes events, exhibits, talks and programmes. While the first UK Black History Month explored Black American history, the UK is, of course, not the same as US – facing its own multifarious challenges – and the month-long celebration has since evolved on British shores to look at fostering an understanding of Black history in general, with a specific focus on the contributions of people with African and Caribbean heritage to British society. In recent years, the event has also lobbied the government to incorporate Black history and Britain’s colonial history more thoroughly in the school curriculum.
Who Started Black History Month In The UK?
Black History Month has taken place every October in the UK since 1987, thanks to Akyaaba Addai-Sebo who came to the UK from Ghana as a refugee in 1984. In the mid-1980s, Akyaaba says he was ‘stirred up […] by the identity crisis that Black children faced’. He explained that ‘Some brazenly would not identify with Africa and shrank when called an African’.
One example he shared, when talking to Black History Month magazine in 2017, was of a colleague who’s son asked her one night: ‘Mom, why can’t I be white?’. He explained that ‘In consoling this devastated mother, I was prompted to go around asking questions about “identity” and to observe and talk to children more after school, in buses, parks, and in the playgrounds in the communities in some parts of London. I was awakened to the fact that even some Ghanaians tried to mimick being Afro-Caribbeans and some Afro-Caribbeans would take offense being referred to as “African”.
Despite the Race Awareness campaigns of the Greater London Council (GLC) and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), he felt that more had to be done. And so he conceived ‘an annual celebration of the contributions of Africa, Africans and people of African descent to world civilization from antiquity to the present’.
Why Is Black History Month In October?
In the US and Canada, Black History Month takes place annually in February, but in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe, it is celebrated in October. Why? Here’s what you need to know.
UK Black History Month 2026
UK Black History Month grows every year. For 2026, the theme is ‘Honouring Our Communities, in celebration of everyday individuals, networks, and grassroots organisations. As Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE writes: ‘Across Britain, there are black individuals who show up every day for others. Volunteers who give their time without expectation. Teachers who shape futures far beyond the classroom. Nurses and carers who offer dignity and compassion in moments that matter most. Community leaders and organisers who bring people together, often working quietly, without recognition.’
She adds that this year’s theme ‘Is about making those contributions visible. It is about recognising that history is not only something we look back on, but something that is being lived and shaped in the present. It asks us to consider whose work we value, whose stories we tell, and whose contributions we may have overlooked.’
When Is It?
Black History Month takes place every October in the UK, running for the entire month.
How To Get Involved
If you’re not already doing so year-round, use this month as a chance to immerse and educate yourself in Black culture, and support those from the African and Carribean diaspora – whether that’s through the novels you read, the films you watch, the exihibits you attend or the clothes you wear.
Find more ways to celebrate Black History Month in London here
Donate To Charity
There are a number of British charities directly supporting Black communities, including:
Learn more at blackhistorymonth.org.uk
