Since its inception in 1926, Negro History Week and Black History Month have been celebrated around a theme.

The first theme was rather broad, The Negro in History. Since then, the theme has become more specific. It is announced each year by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Washington, D.C.

Recent themes were The Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas (2009), The History of Black Economic Empowerment (2010) and African Americans and the Civil War (2011).

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