📅 Thursday, February 19, 2026 🕛 Noon - 1 PM
“100 Years of Black History Month”
Join us and speaker Melva Becnel as 2026 marks a century of national commemorations of Black history set forth by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, George Cleveland Hall, William D. Hartgrove, Jesse E. Moorland, Alexander L. Jackson, and James E. Stamps institutionalized the teaching, study, dissemination, and commemoration of Black history when they founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) on September 9, 1915. In 1925, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson planned the inaugural week-long observance of Black history, he could have hardly anticipated the imprint he would leave on the world. From Negro History Week to Black History Month, ASALH has carried forth the tradition and the observances have become part of the wolf and warp of American culture and increasingly the global community. For its 100th theme, the Founders of Black History Month urges us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history and life commemorations in transforming the status of Black peoples in the modern world.
During this year, which we are also commemorating the 250th Anniversary of United States Independence, it is important to not only tell an inclusive history, but an accurate one. Thus, the need to examine the role of Black History Month could not be greater than today when forces weary of democracy seek to use legislative means and book bans and challenges excise Black history from America’s schools and public culture. Black history’s value is not its contribution to mainstream historical narratives, but its resonance in the lives of Black people.
About the Speaker Melva Becnel, featured in Houston History Magazine
Melva Becnel was born in Houston, Texas, on January 26, 1939. Becnel attended Houston public schools and graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in Tennessee and took over her family’s real estate firm with her brother. Eventually, she decided to pursue a law degree from Texas Southern and became an attorney.
In 1977, Becnel was chosen to serve on the Texas Coordinating Committee for International Women’s Year, a group tasked with planning a state meeting before the National Women’s Conference later that year. Becnel helped plan workshops for the state meeting and was also an alternate on the nominating committee, which put forth a slate of potential delegates for attendees to vote on. She was elected as one of the Texas delegates, with 719 votes.
In Houston, Becnel voiced support for many of the recommendations the national committee proposed and joined the minority women’s caucus. She recalled in a 2005 documentary about the conference that Black women were initially hesitant about attending, since women’s rights movement often did not prioritize the needs of the Black community. “I had to overcome that as well,” she said, “But I knew it was important to participate, to see what was going on, and to try to close that gap and move that gulf.”
Becnel held memberships with an array of voluntary organizations, including the National Women of Achievement, Phi Alpha Delta, the Houston area Urban League, and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Becnel also held positions in local and state government. For fourteen years, she worked as a legislative aide to State Representative Ronald R. Wilson (D-Houston) and served as a board member for the Texas Housing Authority.
Bring your lunch (or order online), your curiosity, and your patriotic spirit for an inspiring midday learning experience.
Members attend Lunch and Learns for free! Lunches from Tres Market Foods are additional. Membership information here- https://www.heritagesociety.org/membership-join
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