Honoring Black History Month
An email message sent to members of the Assumption community on February 15, 2026:
Dear Assumption Community,
Each February, we join communities across the nation in observing Black History Month—not simply a commemoration of the past, but an invitation to reflect on the how the God-given dignity of every human person—a foundational reality of Assumption’s Catholic identity and mission—is borne out in our society.
This month is rooted in the work of Carter G. Woodson, a pioneering historian and educator who became just the second Black person to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University after W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1926, he chose this second week of February, coinciding with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, to found what we now know as Black History Month.
Douglass galvanized our nation to fully pursue the truths of equality and liberty laid out in the Constitution. Born into slavery and largely self-taught, he embodies the power of education as not simply an accumulation of information, but a liberation of the mind and a deepening of our capacity for moral judgment.
Dr. Woodson, who is often called the “Father of Black History,” honored Douglass because he understood that historical memory is not a luxury; it is essential to genuine education. A society that fails to understand its full history can never fully understand itself.
I encourage each of us to engage with the richness of Black history, to step into what Saint Augustine called “the fields and vast palaces of memory” where innumerable treasures of wisdom can be found in the work of Black thinkers, artists, and leaders like Du Bois and Douglass. I also invite you to engage with the programs and events happening on our campus.
May this month help to deepen our curiosity, expand our knowledge, and fill us with a renewed commitment to the truth that sets us free. Thank you for all you do to make Assumption a community of inquiry, respect, and hope.
Sincerely,
Greg Weiner, Ph.D.
President
Assumption University