Due to weather, MassBay will be CLOSED on Tuesday Feb. 24, 2026. All day & evening in-person and remote classes, activities, and events are canceled.
MassBay Black History Month starts with acclaimed Harvard scholar Jarvis R. Givens presenting his book, I’ll Make Me A World, about the journey through the 100-year history of Black History Month—from its radical beginnings in 1926 as “Negro History Week” to its role today as a celebration.
Wellesley Cafeteria
11am Atrium & 12pm Unity Center
3pm Atrium
3pm Recreational & Wellness Center
11am Atrium
4pm Webex
1pm Atrium
11:30am Wellesley Library
2pm Wellesley Cafeteria
February 1
In February 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month.
February 2
Gladys Mae West, a pioneering mathematician, helped develop the satellite calculations that made today’s GPS technology possible.
February 3
Madam C. J. Walker became the first U.S. woman to become a self‑made millionaire, building a hair‑care empire in the early 1900s.
February 4
On March 2, 1955, at just 15 years old, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama—nine months before Rosa Parks’ more widely known protest—making her one of the first people to challenge segregation laws on public buses.
February 5
George Washington Carver revolutionized Southern farming by teaching farmers to grow nitrogen-fixing crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes to restore soil depleted by cotton farming. He then developed over 300 products from peanuts alone, including food, soap, cosmetics, and medicine.
February 6
Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to win an Academy Award in 1940 for Gone with the Wind.
February 7
Thomas L. Jennings was the first African American to receive a U.S. patent. In 1821, Jennings was granted a patent for “dry scouring,” a method for cleaning clothes that preceded modern-day dry cleaning.
February 8
Shirley Chisholm made history in 1968 as the first Black woman elected to Congress and again in 1972 as the first Black woman to run for President of the United States.
February 9
Althea Gibson was the first Black athlete to compete and win in international tennis, breaking racial barriers in the sport. She won Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals (now the U.S. Open) in 1957 and 1958.
February 10
Known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," Opal Lee led a decades-long effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday, including her symbolic “Opal’s Walk to D.C.” and delivering a petition to Congress with 1.5 million signatures. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed Senate Bill S. 475, making Juneteenth the eleventh federal holiday.
February 11
Garrett Morgan received patents for the three-position traffic signal. It was the first to offer a third “caution” signal, which we now know as the yellow light. In 1912, Morgan also received a patent for his “Breathing Device,” which was one of the earliest versions of a gas mask.
February 12
Lewis Latimer invented a method for producing a more durable carbon filament, allowing light bulbs to burn for hours instead of minutes. Because of Latimer’s contributions, incandescent light bulbs became more practical and affordable for consumers.
February 13
The Tuskegee Airmen became the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII. They flew with distinction, overcoming racial discrimination, and won numerous awards for their bravery and skill. Their success helped pave the way for the eventual integration of the U.S. military.
February 14
The Greensboro Four were four students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University —Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—who, in 1960, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their peaceful protest sparked a nationwide movement challenging racial segregation in public spaces and became a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
February 15
In 1864, after studying at the New England Female Medical College, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black woman to become a Doctor of Medicine in the U.S. After the Civil War, she moved to Virginia to tend to former slaves who were refused treatment by white doctors. Upon returning to Boston in 1869, Crumpler opened her own medical practice at her home in Beacon Hill. She published A Book of Medical Discourses in 1883, one of the first medical publications by an African American and a forerunner to the famous What to Expect When You’re Expecting.
February 16
W.E.B. Du Bois co‑founded The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, and became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.
February 17
Mae Jemison — a physician, engineer, and former NASA astronaut — became the first Black woman to travel in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
February 18
The Harlem Renaissance (1920s–30s) was a Black cultural movement centered in New York City. It celebrated Black art, literature, music, and politics with figures like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Duke Ellington shaping American culture and leaving a lasting artistic legacy.
February 19
Jackie Robinson played for the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs before breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, courageously facing racism, challenging segregation and inspiring the Civil Rights Movement.
February 20
Thurgood Marshall was the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice and a pioneering civil rights lawyer. Before joining the Court, he won landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation in public schools.
February 21
Motown Records was founded in Detroit in 1959 by Berry Gordy. Known as “Hitsville U.S.A.,” it became a powerhouse for Black artists, producing iconic stars like Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, and shaping the sound of popular music worldwide.
February 22
The first Black-owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was founded in 1827 in New York City to give African Americans a voice, report on injustices, and celebrate Black achievements.
February 23
Katherine Johnson, whose story was featured in the film Hidden Figures, was a pioneering mathematician whose calculations were critical to NASA’s early space missions, including John Glenn’s orbit around Earth in 1962. Her work broke barriers for women and Black professionals in STEM.
February 24
President Barack Obama is a lawyer, community organizer, and politician who made history as the first Black U.S. President, serving two terms from 2009 to 2017. He previously served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and worked to expand healthcare, support economic recovery, and promote civil rights.
February 25
In 1969, the Black Panther Party launched the Free Breakfast for Children Program, raising national awareness about child hunger and showing the power of community-led nutrition efforts. Their activism pressured public officials and helped expand the federal National School Breakfast Program in the 1970s—a program that still serves children today.
February 26
Dr. Charles Drew was a surgeon and researcher who organized the nation’s first large-scale blood bank. Drew was a key pioneer in developing ways to preserve, store and transport blood. His methods were adopted by the American Red Cross.
February 27
Toni Morrison was a Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning author whose novels, including Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye, explored African American identity, history, and culture. She was the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, leaving a lasting impact on American literature and social thought.
February 28
Henrietta Lacks’ cells, taken without her consent in 1951, became the HeLa cell line—one of the most important tools in medical research, contributing to breakthroughs in vaccines, cancer treatment, and genetics.