29 Reasons Black History Month 2016 Was The Best Ever

29 Great Black History Month Moments From 2016

Black History Month 2016 was the most amazing, unforgettable Black History Month of all time (or at least, that we can remember). So much incredible, LIT moments happened that we had to highlight them for your viewing pleasure. And to also remind you to keep it going! Don’t let a 29-Day segment of time be the only time we acknowledge our greatness.

So let’s look back as we count down the 29 best, Blackest moments from the best Black History Month ever.

29. The Fact There Are 29 Days This Year – We should have known it was going to be LIT when we had an extra 24 hours to squeeze a bit more Blackness into your life. We had a head start and made the most of it.

28. #BlackMenGreetings – February was full of dope hashtags that brought us all together as a community. Meanwhile White people looked on very confused.

27. Charlamagne Schools Dumb Racist Woman – Tomi Lahren was under the belief that the Black Panther Party was basically the Black KKK…so Charlamagne hopped on her show and made her realize just how dumb she sounded.

26. 51 Black Girls Dance At The White House – Michelle Obama invited 51 Black girls to dance at the White House for Black History Month and it was so damn precious and magical that it only made us miss the Obamas even more and they’re not even gone yet.

25. Mother-Daughter Pic Breaks The Internet – This mother and her twin daughters look the same damn age and their pic had everyone confused. There was even a White mother-daughter who tried to copy it and they just looked crusty by comparison.

23. “If Metro Boomin’ Don’t Trust You…” – Whatever you think about Kanye’s TLOP, you have to at least appreciate the 10 seconds on “Father Stretch My Hands” where we get the Future ad-lib and the beat drop. BEAUTIFUL MORNING YOU’RE THE SUN TO MY MORNING, BABE!!!!

22. Gods Of Egypt FLOPPED – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Hollywood thought they could make ANOTHER whitewashed movie and people would go watch that trash. The movie is 2016’s first big flop. That’s what those A-holes get.

21. The Golden Girls Remix – We’d seen the short version, but we finally got the full gospel version of Golden Girls and it’s changed our lives. The seas have opened and clear skies are above because this is in our lives.

20. Rihanna’s Work Video – Yes. Lawd. Moving along.

19. Eclipsed – Eclipsed is the first-ever Broadway play written, directed and produced by Black women. This month they covered Uptown magazine to show off their beautiful cast and we want to frame this cover forever and ever.

18. Egypt “Ify” Ufele – She was bullied at an early age and turned that trauma into pure greatness with a clothing line to combat bullying. Shine on, Black girl.

17. Angela Bassett – She didn’t quite do anything in particular this year. But every year she’s alive is worth acknowledging. Her fineness and grace are just Black Excellence in human form.

16. The Black American Girl Doll Announced – Yup, we’re getting a Black American Girl Doll. She’s from the Civil Rights era and will be here to teach our little Black babies a bit about history. Can we cop, like, five of them?

15. Prince’s Passport Photo – Find a flaw. Find a single flaw here. We dare you.

14. Trap Covers Dominate Twitter – Twitter got tired of White people doing folk covers of Black songs so they decided to give us Trap covers of White songs. We got Full House, Don’t Stop Believing and everything in between. Black people are the best.

13. The Black Panthers Doc Hits PBS – There was a lot of talk about the Black Panthers this month and PBS was right on time with an illuminating and poignant documentary on Black History and the Panthers…for all those racists who couldn’t understand them.

12. The Nation Of Islam Steps Up For Beyonce – A bunch of cops got mad because Beyonce wanted them to stop killing Black people (reasonable) and some police departments decided not to offer security for her events. So what happened? The Nation of Islam said they’d step in and offer security. Oh, it’s LIT.

11. #JUSTICEFORFLINT – Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler and other celebrities held a charity event for Flint, Michigan in which they raised more than $100,000 for the disaster in Flint. And they did this DURING the Oscars. Glory.

10. President Obama’s Black History Month Joke – The YOLOBama tour is in full force and he really let loose for a Black History Month celebration in the White House. Just watch the video.

9. Sophina DeJesus – She whipped and Nae Nae’d while giving a perfect performance. She was also one of the only gymnastics routines to ever stay on beat. That’s more impressive than a double somersault three-legged hippy flip they usually do.

8. Channing Dungey Named First African-American To Head A Major Broadcast Network – ABC knows what’s up. A Black woman is giving them their highest ratings so they known #BlackGirlMagic when they see it. No wonder they hired a Black woman to run sh*t before anyone else did.

7. DeRay Runs For Mayor – This is HUGE. People have been wondering what the next step for Black Lives Matter would be and DeRay helped answer that question by announcing his candidacy for Baltimore mayor. We really hope this inspires more young activists to seek political office. You definitely get our vote!

6. Cam Newton Dabbed To The Super Bowl – No, Cam Newton didn’t win the Super Bowl but he showed out to get there. His team was 15-1 and he dealt with haters the whole way to glory. We still got nothing but love for Cam no matter how it ended. Dam on them folks.

5. Chris Rock Kills It At The Oscars – Chris Rock had a rocky start to the hardest stand-up gig probably of all time. He started with a comment about how people in the 50s and 60s had real things to worry about, which was a mischaracterization of the current violence against Black people. But he pulled it together with a bit about how racism is alive and well in Hollywood and then ended the show by saying “Black Lives Matter.” Overall, his performance was Black as hell and we appreciate him for it.

4. The Police Brutality Episode Of Black-ish – You have to see this episode. It goes up there with the Fresh Prince episode about Will’s dad and the time Will got shot as one of the most emotional Black sitcom moments of all time. They stuck the landing and it was absolutely perfect. America needs Black-ish.

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/701626386742702080

3. The 106-Year-Old Woman Who Met The Obamas – We love her. We really do. Imagine the things she witnessed in her 106 years and now she gets to see a Black family in the White House. Wouldn’t you dance, too?

2. Kendrick Lamar With The Best Performance Of All Time – One thing that was just as anticipated as Chris Rock’s monologue at the Oscars was Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the Grammys. Kendrick didn’t disappoint. We got chain gangs, African dancers, Compton in Africa and Jordan Cry Faces on all the White people in the audience who were confused. Kendrick is King and this proved that point.

1. Get In Formation – Did you think it would be anything else? Really? Slay isn’t even the word. What’s more than slay? Massacre? What do the kids say? Snatch wigs? Leave people edgeless? How does this even work? What words are supposed to go here?

Beyonce dropped a Black Lives Matter anthem out of nowhere, putting the movement front and center in the celebrity world. Then she performed the song the next day at the Super Bowl. With tens of millions of people watching, she had Black WOMEN in Black Panther garb dancing right there on the cotdamn football field. She stole the bowl and helped bring even more attention to the cause. It was beautiful and we’ll never for get it.