First, in 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week as the founder of Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). (Fun fact: Langston Hughes would briefly join his office four years later in 1930 to support Woodson’s historicization of Black Americans).

Dr. Woodson wanted to recognize people who embodied his visions of freedom. For him, that meant honoring Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Both of whom have birthdays in February.

In 2026, I continue to think about what embodies a sense of freedom for me during this moment.

I return to my early educators and, similarly, people who were in my neighborhood who were proud and fascinated by history in general—not history in the way that people are taught, history I think in the way Toni Morrison describes the past:

The past is not done and it is not over—it is still in process, which is another way of saying when it is critiqued, analyzed, it yields new information about itself. The past is already changing as it is being reexamined, as it is being listened to for deeper resonances. Actually, it can be more liberating than any imagined future, if you are willing to identify its evasions, its distortions, its lies, and are willing to unleash its secrets.

— Toni Morrison

I think about Frances Albrier, who was not a “maid” domestically, but a Pullman maid on the railroad. She worked side by side with porters. In her twenties, Albrier was encouraging Pullman porters and Pullman maids to join the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids—founded in 1925—at a time when many people were very uncertain about joining because of the repercussions. Albrier went on to become an incredible civil rights advocate. Even so, her early revolutionary work less recognized.