It is a little more challenging these days to know what's true, what's not and and what's slanted when you watch the news or scroll through your Twitter or Facebook.
So we're helping you get the truth through our Verify project.
Melissa McKnight wrote to WUSA9's Adam Longo late last week and said the following:
"I heard about Verify on 11 PM news yesterday. I am not sure if you are verifying all types of news stories regardless of the source, but I was curious if the information reported the story in the following link is true."
Yes, Melissa. We will verify any type of story you see regardless of the source.
The link she sent is to a BET article claiming that Donald Trump changed the name of Black History Month to African American history month.
So is that true?
The BET article is quoting from a TMZ article that was published last Thursday morning with a headline reading "Donald Trump, I've 86'd Black History Month. It's now African American History Month."
Here's a presidential proclamation from Trump published last week, proclaiming February as national African American History Month.
The TMZ article claims every U.S. president since 1976 has called it Black History Month.
That's wrong.
This is last year's proclamation from President Obama, national African American History Month.
George W. Bush from 2008, national African American History Month.
Bill Clinton in 2000, national African American History Month.
Confused? We were too.
We dug deep into the archives of the Library of Congress and found the following:
In 1986 congress passed Public Law 99-244, which designated February 1986 as "National Black (Afro-American) History month.
Turns out, every president going back to George H. W. Bush in 1992 has issued a proclamation about national African American History Month.
But based upon the congressional law, the terms Black History Month and African American History Month have been used interchangeably since 1986.
So, no, Donald Trump did not change the name of Black History Month. Everything is the same as its been for the past 31 years.
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