Negro History Week Poster, February 13, 1944

February 13, 1944. Broadside 1944 .A8 FF, Special Collections, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Negro History Week Began

This poster announcing Negro History Week was published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. This organization, founded in 1915 by Virginia native Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950), and now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, organized the first Negro Achievement Week in 1924 and the first Black History Month in 1976. The image on this poster is from a portion of a famous painting Battle at Bunker's Hill by John Trumbull (1756–1843). An enslaved African American, Peter Salem, who is credited with having killed British major John Pitcairn at Bunker Hill, is depicted standing behind an American officer. (source: The Library of Virginia)