2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Black History Month—but you wouldn’t know it from listening to Donald Trump.
He opened his second term by attacking Black history education as “indoctrination.” His administration has dismantled Black history exhibits at national parks and Smithsonian museums. His supporters have even launched a social studies curriculum in Texas that renames enslaved people as “workers.”
This isn’t by accident. Schools, teachers, and students are being targeted as never before.
This Black History Month, NOW members are rededicating to the fight for racial justice and defending the truth of our country’s history.
We are standing up for the Civil Rights Act and refusing to stay silent as the Trump Administration works to unravel federal civil rights protections and retreat from the nation’s responsibility to address racism and marginalization.
And we’re renewing our call for U.S. Senators to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, to restore the full power of the Voting Rights Act, and stop states from allowing racial discrimination at the ballot box.
Today we are seeing old battles become new again: protesters met with violence, innocent people targeted by racial profiling, fundamental rights under attack. We’ve been here before. But history shows that collective, unified courage and resistance can stop this moment from becoming permanent.
Black history is America’s history —and preserving it has never been more urgent.
