Black August is a month-long commemoration dedicated to paying homage to fallen Black revolutionaries, incarcerated freedom fighters, and the longstanding tradition of Black resistance. August has a rich history of revolutionary moments—such as the Haitian Revolution, Nat Turner Rebellion, the Watts Uprising, and Ferguson protests—and several Black nationalist leaders, such as Marcus Garvey and Fred Hampton, were born in August. But the formal observance was started in California prisons inAugust1979 by Black freedom fighters who wanted to honor the lives and deaths of Black political prisoners killed by the state and bring awareness to inhumane prison conditions.