Celebrating Black History Month

LMSD schools will celebrate Black History Month throughout February with a range of educational and enrichment activities. While African American history is embedded in the year-long curriculum at all levels, this month offers an opportunity for deeper exploration of significant figures and events. Schools will feature displays showcasing art, literature, and key historical insights, reinforcing classroom learning. Additionally, various programs and activities will highlight the profound contributions of African Americans throughout history.

Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme. The theme for Black History Month this year is African Americans & Labor!

Throughout the month, we will share information, events and programs celebrating Black History Month from all 11 schools. Click the respective links below to see what's happening at your school and be sure to check back here as we continue to add updates all throughout February!

• Harriton High School
• Lower Merion High School
• Bala Cynwyd Middle School
• Black Rock Middle School
• Welsh Valley Middle School
• Belmont Hills Elementary School
• Cynwyd Elementary School
• Gladwyne Elementary School
• Merion Elementary School
• Penn Valley Elementary School
• Penn Wynne Elementary School

From the Association for the Study of African-American Life & History (ASALH)

When Carter G. Woodson established "Negro History Week" in 1926, he realized the importance of providing a theme to focus the attention of the public. The intention has never been to dictate or limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public’s attention important developments that merit emphasis.

For those interested in the study of identity and ideology, an exploration of ASALH’s Black History themes is itself instructive. Over the years, the themes reflect changes in how people of African descent in the United States have viewed themselves, the influence of social movements on racial ideologies, and the aspirations of the black community.

The changes notwithstanding, the list reveals an overarching continuity in ASALH - dedication to exploring historical issues of importance to people of African descent and race relations in America.

Learn more about the ASALH and the origins of Black History Month here!

The 2025 Black History 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. Be it the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed Low Country colonies, debates among Black educators on the importance of vocational training, self-help strategies and entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice, Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. The 2025 Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor,” sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work.

Considering Black people’s work through the widest perspectives provides versatile and insightful platforms for examining Black life and culture through time and space. In this instance, the notion of work constitutes compensated labor in factories, the military, government agencies, office buildings, public service, and private homes. But it also includes the community building of social justice activists, voluntary workers serving others, and institution building in churches, community groups, and social clubs and organizations. In each of these instances, the work Black people do and have done have been instrumental in shaping the lives, cultures, and histories of Black people and the societies in which they live. Understanding Black labor and its impact in all these multivariate settings is integral to understanding Black people and their histories, lives, and cultures.

Continue reading on the   Association for the Study of African American Life and History's website here.