Every February, schools across Canada observe Black History Month, and in many provinces and communities African Heritage Month as well. While the two are often marked together, they are not exactly the same. Black History Month focuses on the historical experiences of Black communities within national contexts, including racism, exclusion, resistance and struggles for rights. African Heritage Month takes a wider view, connecting these histories to African roots and to a global diaspora shaped by slavery, colonialism, migration and cultural continuity.

Black History Month began in 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week in the United States to challenge the absence of Black history from school curricula. Canada officially recognized Black History Month in 1995, affirming that Black history is part of the country’s shared past. African Heritage Month builds on this foundation by reminding students that Black history did not begin with slavery, and that African cultures, knowledge and identities long predate it.

Both observances ask educators to look closely at how racism develops and how it is sustained over time. This question also sits at the centre of Holocaust education. The Holocaust did not happen suddenly. It was the result of long-standing antisemitism, racial ideas and the gradual erosion of rights, supported by laws, institutions and public silence.

Teaching Black history alongside the Holocaust does not mean treating these histories as the same. Each has its own causes and outcomes. What they share are lessons about how prejudice becomes normal, how people are pushed outside the circle of belonging, and how indifference allows injustice to grow.

African Heritage Month and Black History Month remind students that remembering the past is not only about learning dates or names. It is about understanding how discrimination works and exclusion takes root, why they must be challenged, and how awareness and responsibility help protect human rights today.

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