International Black Heritage Month

Category: Diversity

Diversity

International Black Heritage Month around the world in 2025 — Image by Lawrence Crayton , from Unsplash. CC0

About International Black Heritage Month

How long until International Black Heritage Month?
International Black Heritage Month .
Dates of International Black Heritage Month
2025 InternationalJun 1 International Sun, Jun 1Observances Holiday 2024 InternationalJun 1 International Sat, Jun 1Observances Holiday 2023 InternationalJun 1 International Thu, Jun 1Observances Holiday 2022 InternationalJun 1 International Wed, Jun 1Observances Holiday 2021 InternationalJun 1 International Tue, Jun 1Observances Holiday
Summary
Celebrate International Black Heritage Month and unite in diversity with events that honor global cultural milestones in June.

International Black Heritage Month (IBHM) was launched in June 2021 to educate, celebrate and bring unity across all shades.

Created by Bruce Reynolds of ‘Be the Change Associates: Productions’, a former BBC producer and Director of Social Impact for Marketing Conglomerate Dentsu. Created to provide a new and fresh approach to Social Impact communications, engagement, and storytelling. With a platform that reinvents how Social Impact causes are observed and celebrated, virtually and in-person when possible.

IBHM is held in June to connect the significant cultural observances of

1) Juneteenth in the USA (June 19th),

2) Windrush Day in the UK (June 22nd),

3) Portugal Day (June 10th)

4) Keti Koti in Utrecht, Netherlands (June 30th), and

5) Youth Day, South Africa (June 16th)

Juneteenth (USA) June 19th, commemorates the end of slavery and final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation (freed from slavery, servitude, legal, social, political restrictions of African-Americans, in Texas in 1865, over 2 years after President Lincoln declared all enslaved persons free.

Windrush Day (UK) is celebrated in the UK on June 22nd to mark the arrival of an estimated half a million Afro-Caribbean people who went to the UK at the request of the British Government to help rebuild the country after the Second World War. The first Windrush Day was held on June 22nd 2018.

Portugal Day, (Portugal) June 10th, pays tribute to poet Luis de Camões, the country of Portugal, the Portuguese people, and the Portuguese presence worldwide (Lusophone culture): Brazil, Angola, Cabo Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe.

Keti Koti (Utrich, Netherlands) June 30th, Ketikoti means ‘broken chains,’ and it commemorates those who lived in slavery and celebrate the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles in 1863.

Youth Day, (South Africa) June 16th, previously known as Soweto Day, marks the anniversary of 1975 when student protested in African schools against apartheid and commands that Afrikaans, a derivative of Dutch, had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools.

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