Our Ancestors Were Messy - Coming Soon: Essie and Paul Robeson (Jan. 28th)

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Host Nichole Hill shares the story behind Black History Month ahead of the 100th anniversary of it’s celebration and gives listeners a sneak peek of a new episode coming out on January 28th.To learn more about the show and keep in touch, check out https://ourancestorsweremessy.comTo access bonus content and support this independent production visit  https://ourancestorsweremessy.supercast.comTo stay in touch email [e-mail] or follow the show @ourancestorsweremessy on Instagram

February 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of what started out as Negro History Week and later became Black History Month. I'll tell you the whole story. But first, in honor of this milestone, we at Our Ancestors Were Messy would like to bring you a bonus episode on January 28th. Here's the trailer. Our Adventures of Black People Presents. Our Ancestors Were Messy. Today, witness a roaring 20s meat cute. You didn't tell her she had a boyfriend.

She had a boyfriend, a doctor. He was dirty macking. Paul and Islonda Robeson, forge a bond defined by love. They also want an unconventional arrangement where they're going to be equal. War. You say she already did it, see? I'm glad you said that. Not me.

Not me. And ultimately, revolution. He's like, they want your labor for as close to free as possible. and they want to treat you like second-class citizens, just like black Americans and Russian serfs. This episode stars 2024 MacArthur Fellow at New York Times best-selling author of young adult novels and poetry, Jason Reynolds.

There's an honoring of the sacrifice of my ancestors that I think I would want to see through. And your host, Nicole Hill. So in the movie version, it's wintertime. They get to a house just like this. Live in front of a studio audience in a living room in Washington, D.C. This is Our Ancestors Were Messy.

I feel like this is a setup. A show about our ancestors and all their drama. So black people have been coming together in February to celebrate our history, actually since at least the 1890s. On February 12th, everyone would get together and reread the Emancipation Proclamation and commemorate freedom on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. And then, right after Frederick Douglass passed, people started getting together again on his birthday, February 14th, to celebrate his contributions to the race. So every February, we're having these Black History Days. Some people would do it like kind of stoically. Other people treated it like Coachella. And then in 1926, in the midst of Jim Crow, Carter G. Woodson, who's like obsessed with Black History, was like, okay, my people, why don't we turn these couple days? into a week-long celebration.

Why don't you sit down with your elders and learn about the black heroes and history in your own family? Why don't you write it down and start a personal archive? Why don't you and your church group start a committee to collect books on black heroes and get them into your local libraries? Why don't you and your friends start a petition

to get your school to teach black history? Carter G. Woodson called this Negro History Week, and he envisioned it not as the one week that we acknowledge black contributions, but as the time we celebrate a year's worth of efforts to preserve and promote black history. So starting in 1926, every February, year after year, decade after decade, we celebrated for a week. And then in the 1970s, the Elders Got Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. And this February 2026 marks our 100th celebration.

So let's celebrate. The new episode comes out on January 28th. Everywhere you get your podcast, including YouTube. Jason Reynolds is my guest. I mean, let's go.