Why Women Couldn’t Wear Pants on the Senate Floor Until 1993

Senator Barbara Mikulski hosting newly elected women Senate members, 2000. Getty Images.
Senator Barbara Mikulski hosting newly elected women Senate members, 2000. Getty Images.

One brisk morning in early 1993, Carol Moseley-Braun selected a favorite pantsuit from her closet and went off to her new job in Washington, D.C. The Democrat, who had previously served in the Illinois state Senate for a decade, had been elected in November 1992 on a platform of women's rights and civil rights. When she won, she replaced incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon and became the first African-American woman to serve as a United States senator. But when she set foot on the Senate floor that winter day, wearing "my nice outfit," as she said later, "the gasps were audible." Unbeknownst to Moseley-Braun—who had donned pantsuits frequently during her time in the Illinois legislature—women were forbidden from wearing pants on the Senate floor.

She had broken a rule, albeit an unwritten one. It was enforced by peer pressure and official Senate doorkeepers who could turn away anyone they didn't think looked "appropriate," and it remained an important fact of daily life among women in the Senate for decades. That is, until Moseley-Braun and another political pioneer intervened to challenge it.


Carol Moseley-Braun declaring victory in November 1992. Image credit: Getty Images

Like other gentlemen of their day,

early senators wore waistcoats, frock coats, and breeches with stockings—nothing too fancy, since ostentatious clothing had a whiff of aristocracy about it. But by the late 19th century, senators were dressing in formal clothes, complete with vests, cutaway coats, and striped trousers. Fashion was generally consistent despite some regional differences, and experienced senators policed newer members, ensuring they were dressed to preserve the dignity of the legislative chamber.

When women first began entering Congress—starting when Jeannette Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives in 1916—they dressed in dark colors and conservative cuts to avoid drawing attention to themselves. In the 1940s, once women began serving in the House in larger numbers, Reps. Mary Norton (a Democrat from New Jersey) and Frances Bolton (a Republican from Ohio) would patrol the fashion choices of other female representatives. The historian for the House of Representatives, Matthew Wasniewski, told The Hill in 2011 that "If [congresswomen] were wearing a dress that Norton considered too frilly, she would go up and say something to them."

Trousers became common leisurewear for women by the mid-20th century, but it took a while longer before women wore pants to the office or on formal occasions. Slacks and pantsuits only began entering the mainstream of acceptable workwear for women around 1970, when they were first allowed at federal agencies, including the State Department and the Pentagon—though they were still forbidden at the FBI until after J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972; he hated seeing women in pants.

That year, Pat Nixon wore two pantsuits by American designers in a fashion spread, becoming the first sitting first lady to be photographed publicly wearing trousers. Around the same time, fashion norms started to change in the House of Representatives: Rep. Charlotte T. Reid, a Republican from Illinois, made history in 1969 when she showed up to the House in a "black wool, bell-bottomed pantsuit … a first in the annals of the U.S. Congress." One male colleague couldn’t believe it, remarking to Reid, "I was told there was a lady here in trousers, so I had to come over and see for myself."


Women of the 89th Congress, 1965, with Charlotte Reid standing at far right. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

In the Senate, norms were harder to change.

As the upper house in the U.S. legislature, the Senate has always been more formal and reserved than the House. Even during the 1980s, pants on women were apparently too much for that august chamber to handle. Individual Senate offices had their own rules, but on the floor, women wearing pants were verboten, which could necessitate quick changes. "We've heard from women staff that in the 1980s, if they came in to work—if they were called in on an emergency basis—they needed to keep a dress to put on quickly or they had to borrow one if they had to appear on the Senate floor," Richard A. Baker, Senate historian from 1975 to 2009, told The Washington Post in 2002.

While the dress code for the Senate was never officially codified, the norms were enforced by Senate doorkeepers, who controlled access to the chamber and served partly as security guards, partly as protocol monitors. Even today, they assess each person seeking entry, making sure they are supposed to be there and are dressed appropriately. The problem is that "dressed appropriately" has historically been up to the discretion of the doorkeeper on duty: Doorkeepers made determinations based on personal opinion or instructions from their boss, the sergeant at arms.

In 1972, a group of female Senate aides wrote a letter to the chairman of the rules committee, complaining that each doorkeeper had his own fashion requirements and asking that a written dress code be developed so they’d know when their outfits were acceptable. "It's just so silly," one aide told the Los Angeles Times. “You just don’t have the time to second-guess the sergeant-at-arms at 8 in the morning when you’re trying to get dressed.” The rules committee apparently ignored their request.


Sens. Patty Murray, Barbara Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Carol Moseley-Braun, and Diane Feinstein in 1992. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons // Public domain

In 1993, the gender balance in the Senate

finally started to shift. Until that year, only two women senators had ever served simultaneously. But in November 1992, four women won Senate seats, joining Nancy Kassebaum (a Republican from Kansas first elected in 1978) and Barbara Mikulski (a Democrat from Maryland first elected in 1986) for a total of six women—the largest-yet group of female legislators in the upper house.

One of those new senators was Moseley-Braun. During her years in the Illinois state legislature, she’d grown accustomed to wearing pantsuits, and when she joined the U.S. Senate, she was unaware they weren’t allowed. "It was one of those unwritten rules that they don’t tell you about unless you're part of the circle," she said recently in an interview with WBEZ. "And nobody was talking to me about these things, so I had no clue."

On that winter day in 1993, after hearing the gasps from the men in chamber, Moseley-Braun recalled that she'd wondered, "'What’s up? What’s the problem?' It’s not like I had on a kilt." The senator didn't realize what she'd done until female staffers came up to thank her. They'd been fighting for the right to wear pants for years, and now they had a senator on their side.


Barbara Mikulski and other women Democratic senators at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Image credit: Getty Images.

Actually, they had two.

Around the time Moseley-Braun was inadvertently bucking the no-pantsuit rule, Sen. Barbara Mikulski had made up her mind to challenge the same outdated norm. "It was a snowy day" sometime in early 1993, she told Vice, "and I found out more bad weather was coming. I just really wanted to be comfortable. I'm most comfortable wearing slacks."

Unlike Moseley-Braun, Mikulski knew she was breaking a long-standing tradition, so she approached fellow Democrat Robert Byrd, then the President pro tempore of the Senate, to advise him of her plans to wear pants. Byrd had the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, check the rules to make sure pants on women weren’t explicitly outlawed. When he determined that they weren't, Byrd "gave the nod," Mikulski remembered. "He didn't say yes, but he gave a nod." Soon Mikulski was walking onto the Senate floor in a pair of slacks, and from the reaction, she recalled, "You would have thought that I was walking on the moon." (While there are no official Senate records showing which woman wore pants on the Senate floor first, newspaper accounts suggest Mikulski's act followed Moseley-Braun's.)

The pants-wearing senators had set a precedent—one that would soon become permanent. The Senate sergeant at arms that year was Martha Pope, the first-ever woman to hold the job (she had been elected two years prior). According to the Chicago Sun-Times, her doorkeepers followed a written policy manual that stated, "Women are required to wear business attire, i.e., dress, skirt and blouse or business suit." After Moseley-Braun and Mikulski wore pantsuits on the floor, Pope circulated a memo to her staff, amending the manual to read, "Women are required to wear business attire, i.e. dress, skirt/blouse, business suit, coordinated pantsuit (slacks and matching blazer; no stirrup pants)."


Sen. Barbara Mikulsk on her way to the Senate floor in 2014. Image credit: Getty Images

Senator Diane Feinstein joined her colleagues in wearing pantsuits from time to time, and female staffers and journalists took advantage of this new freedom as well. Female Senate aides also had a new line of argument for pantsuit-averse supervisors. According to Moseley-Braun, "What happened next was that other people started wearing pants. All the women staffers went to their bosses and said, 'If this senator can wear pants, then why can't I?' And so it was the pantsuit revolution."

Additional Sources: "Women Aides Are Upset: Fashion Furor in the Capital," Los Angeles Times; "Women Now Can Wear the Pants in the Senate," Chicago Sun-Times

54 Super Facts for Your Super Bowl Party

Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images
Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images

Want to be the smartest person in the room at this year's Super Bowl party? Bust out a few of these fun facts about Big Games past.

1. Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year.

plate of chicken wings
iStock.com/bhofack2

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Super Bowl Sunday is America's "second-largest food consumption day." (Only Thanksgiving Day beats it.)

2. Those rumors about sewage systems failing because of all the flushing toilets during halftime are just that: rumors.

Close-up of a toilet flushing
kanjana intaounwong/iStock via Getty Images

A persistent rumor says that sewage systems in major cities occasionally fail during Super Bowl halftimes, because a large volume of people supposedly all flush their toilets simultaneously. Don't worry! There's absolutely no evidence to support this claim.

3. Peyton Manning is the only starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams.

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Peyton Manning is the only starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams: the Indianapolis Colts in 2007 and the Denver Broncos in 2016.

4. Phil Simms was paid a lot of money to say he was celebrating his Super Bowl win by "going to Disney World."

Phil Simms is going to Disney World
Allsport/Getty Images

Phil Simms was paid $75,000 to shout "I'm going to Disney World” on the field moments after his Giants won Super Bowl XXI. Disney also paid Denver’s John Elway the same amount of money to yell the same thing—just in case his team won.

5. Two teams are tied for most Super Bowl wins—and a third could join them after Super Bowl LIV.

Mewelde Moore #21 of the Pittsburgh Steelers celebrates holds up the Vince Lombardi trophy as he celebrates with his daughter Jalyn Chantelle after their 27-23 win against the Arizona Cardinals during Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009
Jamie Squire, Getty Images

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots are tied for the record for most Super Bowl wins, having captured six Vince Lombardi Trophies apiece. The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys have each won five.

6. The New England Patriots have both won and lost the most Super Bowls.

 Russell Wilson #3 of the Seattle Seahawks passes as Wesley Woodyard #52 of the Denver Broncos defends during Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium on February 2, 2014
Jeff Zelevansky, Getty Images

Which team has lost the most? That would be a tie between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, who've each dropped five Super Bowl matchups.

7. Super Bowl fans would really like to see "Weird" Al Yankovic take the stage at halftime.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

A 2014 Change.org petition to "Have Weird Al Yankovic Headline the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show" received more than 100,000 signatures.

8. Super Bowl I was far from a sell-out event.

A fan holds up a ticket to Super Bowl 50 outside Levi's Stadium on February 7, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.
Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The priciest tickets to Super Bowl I, which was played on January 15, 1967, cost $12. Adjusted for inflation, that's the equivalent of about $89 today. And even at that bargain price, the event still didn't sell out.

9. The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first Super Bowl-winning team to visit the White House.

Jimmy Carter greets the Pittsburgh Steelers, 1980
The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

In 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers were the first Super Bowl-winning team to visit the White House. They visited with Jimmy Carter in a joint ceremony with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had won the 1979 World Series.

10. When it comes to accommodations, a Super Bowl host city is sometimes forced to get creative.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

When Jacksonville, Florida, hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, the city didn't have enough hotel rooms to meet the NFL's requirements. So in their bid to serve as the Big Game's host, they had to recruit five docked cruise ships as "floating hotels" for the event.

11. Maryland sports fans had good reason to not love New York back in 1969.

Joe Namath
Elsa/Getty Images

Maryland sports fans must have really hated the Big Apple in 1969. On January 12 of that year, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Nine months later, the New York Mets prevailed over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in the '69 World Series.

12. The Super Bowl I halftime show included 300 pigeons.

iStock

The Super Bowl I halftime show consisted of two marching bands, acclaimed trumpeter Al Hirt, two men in jet packs, and 300 pigeons.

13. Western Pennsylvania produces a lot of star quarterbacks.

Joe Montana and Dan Marino
DOUG COLLIER/AFP/Getty Images

Western Pennsylvania is quarterback country. Six Hall of Fame QBs hail from this region, five of whom (Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly) played in at least one Super Bowl each as quarterbacks. The sixth, George Blanda, competed as a placekicker in Super Bowl II.

14. There's a simple way to determine who will be the "home" team.

Doug Benc/Getty Images

In odd-numbered Super Bowls, the NFC team is the designated "home" team while AFC teams enjoy that honor during the even-numbered Super Bowls.

15. Super Bowl XLIV broke a longstanding TV ratings record.

M*A*S*H
Keystone/Getty Images

In 1983, 105.97 million people tuned in to the final episode of M*A*S*H, making it the most-watched TV broadcast in American history. It took more than a quarter-century, but in February 2010, Super Bowl XLIV finally broke that record when 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts. Subsequent Super Bowls have broken even that record, with Super Bowl XLIX—which was played on February 1, 2015—currently holding the top spot, with 114.4 million viewers on average.

16. A record dollar amount is being (legally) bet in 2020.

Getty Images

It's estimated that more than $325 million will be (legally) bet on Super Bowl LIV—a record number.

17. In 1971, a member of the losing team was named MVP for the first (and so far only) time.

Chuck Howley
Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Although the Baltimore Colts beat Dallas in Super Bowl V in 1971, Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley was named the game's MVP. He's the only player in history to earn this honor as a member of the losing team.

18. The Vince Lombardi trophy is crafted by a company everyone knows.

Former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan
Tom Hauck /Allsport

The Vince Lombardi Trophies—a new one of which is handed out every year—are made out of sterling silver by Tiffany & Co.

19. A power outage put a halt to Super Bowl XLVII.

Super Bowl blackout (Superdome 2013)
Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

A power outage at New Orleans's Superdome put Super Bowl XLVII on hold for 34 minutes.

20. Installing new sod for a Super Bowl game is a pretty big task.

Super Bowl 50
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

A fresh layer of high-quality, natural sod is installed on the field prior to each Super Bowl played on natural grass. For Super Bowl 50, the company West Coast Turf harvested 75,000 square feet of premium grass on the NFL’s behalf.

21. Boston's former mayor had to send a lot of Dunkin' products to New York when they lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Giants Super Bowl XLII victory parade
Al Bello/Getty Images

In 2008, then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino lost a high-stakes bet to his Gotham counterpart when the Giants upset the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Because of New England's defeat, Menino had to send a truckload of Massachusetts delicacies—including 42 pounds of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (because it was the 42nd Super Bowl) and 12 dozen Boston cream pies (a reference to Tom Brady's number)—to New York City, where the food was donated to charity.

22. Jim McMahon embraced the pre-Super Bowl spotlight.

Jim McMahon, Super Bowl XX
Getty Images North America

A few days before Super Bowl XX in 1986, Bears QB Jim McMahon mooned a TV news helicopter that was flying over one of Chicago's practice sessions.

23. There has never been a shutout in the Super Bowl.

NFL logo
Tom Hauck/Staff/Getty Images

There has never been a shutout in the Super Bowl. The Miami Dolphins hold the record for fewest points scored in a Super Bowl; in 1972, they lost to Dallas, 24-3.

24. Only one Super Bowl game has gone into overtime.

Pats overtime TD
Elsa/Getty Images

Super Bowl LI was the first one to ever go into overtime. The Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28.

25. For the first time ever, there were no cheerleaders at Super Bowl XLV.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Super Bowl XLV was the first one in history that didn't include cheerleaders. That's because neither of the game's participating teams—the Pittsburgh Steelers nor the Green Bay Packers—has a professional cheerleading squad.

26. Cleveland has neither played in nor hosted a Super Bowl.

Johnny Manziel, Cleveland Browns
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Cleveland is the only current NFL city that has neither hosted a Super Bowl nor seen its own team, the Browns, make an appearance in one.

27. There was a major mishap when the second half kicked off in Super Bowl I.

football on field
iStock.com/tomazl

During Super Bowl I in 1967, NBC was still in commercial when the second half kicked off. Officials asked the Packers to kick off again.

28. The 1989 halftime show was broadcast in 3D.

Dan Witkowski

The 1989 Super Bowl halftime show was broadcast in 3D (a novelty for the time). In it, a magician dressed like Elvis Presley ("Elvis Presto") had the entire stadium participate in a round of the classic “Is this your card?” trick.

29. In 1977, a frisbee-catching dog provided some pre-game entertainment.

dog catching frisbee
iStock.com/Mordolff

Another unusual spectacle was the 1977 Super Bowl pre-game show, which included a Frisbee-catching dog named Ashley Whippet.

30. Lisa Simpson correctly guessed the winner of Super Bowl XXVI.

Lisa Simpson Predicts Super Bowl XXVI
Rick Stewart/Getty Images

Springfield's resident wunderkind really knows her football. In an episode of The Simpsons which aired on January 23, 1992, Lisa correctly guessed that Washington would beat Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVI, which was played three days later.

31. Not sitting president has ever attended a Super Bowl.

Titans fan Al Gore
LUKE FRAZZA/AFP/Getty Images

No sitting president has ever attended a Super Bowl. However, four sitting vice presidents—Spiro Agnew, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, and Mike Pence—have made Big Game appearances.

32. The NFC had a 13-year winning streak.

Getty Images

From 1985 to 1997, the NFC won 13 straight Super Bowls. During that streak, the NFC clubs outscored their AFC opponents by a cumulative score of 490-219.

33. Things got messy at the White House celebration for Super Bowl XXI.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum

While celebrating the Giants' Super Bowl XXI victory with President Reagan at the White House, linebacker Harry Carson emptied a Gatorade tub of popcorn over the Gipper's head.

34. John Candy caused a momentary bit of distraction.

George Rose/Getty Images

On San Francisco's Super Bowl XXIII game-winning drive in 1989, Joe Montana saw a celebrity spectator; in mid-huddle, he nonchalantly asked his teammates, "Hey, isn't that John Candy over there?"

35. Joe Salave'a had the perfect answer to a reporter's question on Super Bowl Media Day 2000.

RICK RUNION/AFP/Getty Images

On Super Bowl Media Day in 2000, a reporter asked then-Titans defensive tackle Joe Salave'a, "What's your relationship with the football?" He replied: "I'd say it's strictly platonic."

36. There's been a fair amount of back-to-back Super Bowl victories.

TONY RANZE/AFP/Getty Images

Back-to-back Super Bowl victories aren't as rare as you might think. The Packers, Dolphins, 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos, Patriots, and Steelers have all pulled off this feat. In fact, Pittsburgh has won back-to-back Super Bowls on two separate occasions.

37. The Super Bowl has given some popular TV shows a great start.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The Wonder Years, Family Guy, and Undercover Boss all made their premieres immediately after the Super Bowl.

38. The 1985 Chicago Bears were nominated for a Grammy.

Mike Powell/Getty Images

The 1985 Bears recorded a hit rap song called "Super Bowl Shuffle," which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. (It lost to Prince & the Revolution's "Kiss.")

39. Joe Montana had a perfect Super Bowl record.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Joe Montana not only emerged victorious from all four of his Super Bowl appearances, he did it without throwing a single interception in any of those games.

40. A streaker interrupted the 2004 Super Bowl.

Super Bowl streaker
Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Just before the second-half kickoff in the 2004 Super Bowl, a man disguised as a referee stripped down to a G-string and streaked across the field. Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham was able to knock him to the ground, enabling security to apprehend the hooligan.

41. The coin used for Super Bowl XLIV's coin flip was out-of-this world.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

In 2010, Super Bowl XLIV featured an unusual piece of memorabilia: The coin that was flipped right before the game had previously spent 11 days orbiting the Earth on a NASA space mission.

42. A California Aquarium hosts an Otter Bowl.

Otter!!
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

For the past several years, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, has hosted an annual Otter Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday, where a group of these adorable mammals play around with a football while a staffer narrates the action. The event was canceled in 2019 so that the aquarium and its visitors could pay tribute to Brook, a popular, 21-year-old sea otter resident who passed away shortly before the event following a diagnosis of congestive heart failure. The event has returned for 2020 though.

43. Tom Brady is the NFL's most winning quarterback.

Super Bowl QB Tom Brady
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

The New England Patriots' Tom Brady has won six Super Bowls, more than any other starting quarterback. Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana won four apiece.

44. The player who scored the first-ever Super Bowl touchdown was hungover.

referee calling a touchdown
iStock.com/groveb

The very first Super Bowl touchdown was scored in 1967 by Packers wide receiver Max McGee (who was hungover at the time). 

45. Super Bowl players get pretty hefty bonuses.

Bob Levey/Getty Images

Super Bowl bonuses are a thing. In 2019, every player on the Pats' championship roster earned $118,000 for winning. The defeated Los Angeles Rams received $59,000 each as a consolation prize.

46. University of Alabama and Purdue University have a good track record when it comes to quarterbacks.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Two colleges have produced three Super Bowl-winning starting quarterbacks: the University of Alabama (Bart Starr, Joe Namath, and Ken Stabler) and Purdue University (Len Dawson, Bob Griese, and Drew Brees).

47. The Super Bowl used to go by a much longer name.

Green Bay Packers defensive linemen Willie Davis (left) and Henry Jordan (right) tackle Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson (middle) in Super Bowl I.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The event we now call the "Super Bowl" originally went by a duller name: "The AFL-NFL World Championship Game." Although "Super Bowl" has been used unofficially since the very first game, the term wasn't officially recognized by the league until a few years later, with the name first appearing on the cover of the program in 1969 and on the ticket in 1970.

48. Forty years after winning Super Bowl VII, the Miami Dolphins were (finally) invited to the White House.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

In 2013, 40 years after winning Super Bowl VII, the famous perfect-season Miami Dolphins were invited to the White House by Barack Obama.

49. A (presumably) excited fan stole Don Shula's watch in 1973.

Don Shula
JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images

As Don Shula was being carried off the field after the Dolphins' Super Bowl win in 1973, a fan reached up to shake his hand—and stole his watch.

50. The Super Bowl XXX website was banned by some servers.

Al Bello/Allsport/Getty Images

During the 1995-1996 season, some proxy servers blocked the Super Bowl website because it was Super Bowl XXX.

51. Hunter S. Thompson wrote about a couple of Super Bowls.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Hunter S. Thompson covered Super Bowls VII and VIII for Rolling Stone.

52. Ratings for the 1993 Super Bowl went up during Michael Jackson's halftime show.

Michael Jackson Super Bowl Halftime 1993
Mike Powell/Allsport/Getty Images

In 1993, Michael Jackson's halftime performance had higher ratings than the game itself.

53. Tom Brady is the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.

Tom Brady at the Super Bowl
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

In 2019, Tom Brady became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl at age 41—he beat Peyton Manning, who led the Broncos to a Super Bowl win in 2016 at age 39.

54. Kyle Shanahan is making history in Super Bowl LIV.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates with his father, Mike Shanahan, after winning the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers at Levi's Stadium on January 19, 2020 in Santa Clara, California
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is making his Super Bowl debut in 2020—making he and his dad, Mike Shanahan (who led the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl victories in XXXII and XXXIII) the first father-son duo to each make a Super Bowl appearance as head coach.

Why Was February Chosen to Celebrate Black History Month?

eag1e, iStock via Getty Images Plus
eag1e, iStock via Getty Images Plus

Every February since 1976, the United States has celebrated the achievements of African-Americans during Black History Month. The month-long celebration puts those accomplishments and milestones into focus via the media and in classrooms.

But why February? Was that part of the calendar chosen for any specific purpose?

It was. Black History Month began as “Negro History Week,” a label applied by historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926. Woodson was bothered by the fact that many textbooks and other historical reviews minimized or ignored the contributions of black figures. Along with his Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—later the Association for the Study of African American Life and History—Woodson earmarked the second week in February to raise awareness of these stories.

Woodson chose that week specifically because it covered the birthdays of Frederick Douglass (February 14) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12). The ensuing publicity led many mayors and college campuses to recognize the week; through the years, the groundswell of support allowed the occasion to stretch throughout the entire month.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford made Black History Month official, saying that he was urging everyone to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Have you got a Big Question you'd like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions@mentalfloss.com.

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