The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 1915 and incorporated in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 1915 as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) by Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland. The association is based in Washington, D.C. ASNLH was renamed the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1972.
ASALH's official mission is "to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community."
ASALH created Negro History Week in 1926. Woodson selected the week to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Each year, Woodson established a national theme for the celebration. Since 1976, ASALH extended the celebration for the entire month of February.
The organization publishes The Journal of African American History (formerly The Journal of Negro History), and the Black History Bulletin (formerly the Negro History Bulletin). In 2005, ASALH established the ASALH Press, reissuing Carter G. Woodson's Mis-Education of the Negro. The same year ASALH established The Woodson Review, a magazine that promotes its Annual Black History Theme.
ASALH is a membership organization with over twenty-five branches.
