Black Heritage Month

The Center for Black Studies, in collaboration with partners across Northern Illinois University, organizes events every February to celebrate Black Heritage Month. All NIU students, staff and faculty are encouraged to attend Black Heritage Month programs to recognize, learn and celebrate the central role of Black diasporic experiences in U.S. history and globally – past, present and future.

2025 Theme: African Americans and Labor

Each year, NIU follows the theme for the month designated by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the leading organization for the study of African Americans in the U.S.

The 2025 Black Heritage Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. Indeed, work is at the very center of much of Black history and culture. Learn more about this year’s theme.

See all Black Heritage Month events