Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Black History Month: Watch Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” + toast with Black Girl Magic

Becoming Michelle Obama

It’s the 100th anniversary of Black History Month this year!

While there’s hundreds of ways to celebrate, watching Becoming, the documentary about Michelle Obama’s life based on her autobiography, is a great way to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Black History Month. In 1926, 100 years ago, Black History Month began as “Negro History Week” and 50 years later, became Black History Month in 1976.  February was chosen in part because of Douglass Day, held on Feb. 14 to honor the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass. Read more here.

“If we can open up a little bit more to each other, and share our stories, that’s what breaks down barriers,” Ms Obama says in the documentary; watch the trailer here.

Black History Month

“Black History Month grew from the bottom up, from grassroots organizing and centuries of intellectual and political struggle,” according to Jarvis R. Givens professor of education and African and African American studies at Harvard University and author of I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month. Read the complete interview here.

While Black History Month also serves to recognize the everyday contributions of Black men and women, it also honors better known figures including Michelle Obama, the first Black First Lady, and author of the bestselling memoir Becoming.

Considered by reviewers as intimate, powerful, and inspiring, the 2018 memoir by the former First Lady of the United States chronicles the experiences that shaped her from growing up on the South Side of Chicago to her education to dating Barack Obama to raising their daughters in the White House— and more. Her stories of her triumphs and disappointments landed her memoir on the New York Times and other bestseller lists where it moved to the number one spot, and became an Oprah’s Book Club Pick, an NAACP Image Award winner, and one of Essence’s 50 most impactful Black books of the past 50 years.

A 2020 documentary follows Michelle Obama on her cross-country book tour and her reflections about her life; Netflix describes it as “part biography, part meditation on what it means to be first lady of the United States” and notes “this documentary, directed by Nadia Hallgren (Victoria Beckham), was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Grammy.”

Michelle Obama promo still from Netflix

Black Girl Magic sparkling + truffles

Black Girl Magic zin

More ideas for consideration this month to celebrate Black History:

• Buy ingredients from a BIPOC owned business or a BIPOC maker.
• Order takeout from a BIPOC owned restaurant.
• Buy a cookbook from a BIPOC author and make a recipe.
• Learn about the amazing contributions of Black Americans to our food culture and cook a traditional dish.
• Cook a recipe from a BIPOC blogger, for example, from Best Meatloaf Recipe – From The Queen of Soul Food Cooking or Dude That Cooks..
•  Support one of these 23 Black Owned Wine Businesses in the US
• The Urban Grape, a Black owned wine shop in Boston, has a collection of wines from BIPOC Producers.
• 11 BIPOC Owned Wine Brands from Well + Good

How will you be celebrating Black History Month?