Heritage Months: Origins and Dates

A heritage month gives a reading project a place on the calendar. Knowing how the observance began gives that project a question worth following beyond the month itself.

A Year of Observances

The calendar includes Black History Month in February, Women's History Month in March, Jewish American Heritage Month in May, Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, and Native American Heritage Month in November. Their beginnings differ. Some grew from a week of recognition; another developed from efforts to establish a day. Laws, proclamations, and community efforts all appear in the histories below.

Use the dates to organize a starting point, then use a history, biography, or document to give the work substance. A calendar answers when an observance takes place. Reading its origins helps explain what people wanted the observance to accomplish. Keep those questions together when preparing a classroom display or choosing a research topic.

February: Black History Month

The Black History Month portal's account of the origins distinguishes the announcement from the first celebration. Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced Negro History Week in 1925. It was first celebrated in February 1926, in a week encompassing the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The observance expanded to a month in 1976.

The National Park Service's history of the observance marks 100 years in February 2026 and notes that Congress made Black History Month law in 1986. Woodson and other advocates supplied lesson plans, pictures, performance scripts, and posters each year. NPS also describes Woodson's hope that the observance would encourage learning and sharing throughout the year. A useful reading question is how teaching materials helped turn recognition into study.

March: Women's History Month

The Women's History Month portal traces national recognition to 1981, when Congress passed Public Law 97-28. It authorized and requested a presidential proclamation for Women's History Week beginning March 7, 1982. Congress continued to designate a March week during the following five years.

In 1987, after a petition by the National Women's History Project, Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March 1987 as Women's History Month. Additional resolutions followed between 1988 and 1994, and annual presidential proclamations have designated March since 1995. For a timeline exercise, distinguish the year a law was passed from the period it designated. Then follow a woman's biography into the wider history of her field.

May: Jewish American Heritage Month

According to the Jewish American Heritage Month portal, the proclamation establishing May as the observance was issued on April 20, 2006. The choice of May followed the celebration of the 350th anniversary of American Jewish history in May 2004.

That anniversary celebration was organized by a coalition including the American Jewish Archives, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives and Records Administration. The portal connects the month to recognition of Jewish contributions to American culture. A reading project can begin with that broad purpose, then focus on a specific life, document, or community rather than expecting a single example to represent an entire history.

September 15–October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month

The Hispanic Heritage Month portal dates the observance's start as a week to 1968. In 1988 it expanded to a 30-day period from September 15 to October 15. Public Law 100-402 was approved on August 17, 1988.

The starting date has a historical reason: September 15 is the independence anniversary of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico's independence day is September 16, and Chile's is September 18. This makes the observance a useful calendar-reading exercise: it crosses a month boundary, and several distinct national histories help explain its dates. Follow one of those histories in depth, keeping the observance's dates separate from the dates of events being studied.

November: Native American Heritage Month

The Native American Heritage Month portal describes efforts that first sought a day of recognition. A proclamation issued in September 1915 called for the second Saturday of May to be American Indian Day.

In 1990, a joint resolution designated November 1990 as National American Indian Heritage Month. Similar proclamations followed under variations of the name, including Native American Heritage Month and National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. These names belong to the history of the observance. For a reading project, choose a specific Native nation and a clear question about its history, documents, or contemporary life. Let that focused study guide the selection of material.

Using the Calendar All Year

Begin with an observance, write down a question, and choose a source that can help answer it. Record the source's author or issuing institution and the dates it discusses. After reading, separate the source's statements from your own interpretation. This method works whether the project begins in February or November.

A year-round reading plan can return to the same question through another biography or document. For example, a project on education might follow how knowledge was recorded, who could use it, and what materials helped people learn. Keep the question open after the display comes down. The calendar supplies an occasion; continued reading supplies the depth.