WASHINGTON — Saturday marked the beginning of Black History Month, which for decades has recognized the contributions of Black people to American civic life and culture with festive luncheons, serious lectures, profitable merchandise lines and staid White House receptions.

But a month that was officially recognized nearly five decades ago by a Republican president, Gerald Ford, is dawning this year with new significance amid President Donald Trump’s furious assault on diversity programs inside and outside the federal government.

Suddenly the study of Black history — or at least the dark corners of slavery, segregation and bigotry — appears to be an act of defiance.

“Black History Month existed long before presidents endorsed it, and it will continue, even if presidents do not,” said Martha Jones, a professor of history and a presidential scholar at Johns Hopkins University.

Nonetheless, she added, “there’s a great deal to lament and even to decry” about the suppression of American history.

On Friday evening, Trump issued a proclamation that announced “February 2025 as National Black History Month,” “by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

Adding to mentions of celebrated Black historical figures such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, he celebrated two contemporary Black conservatives, scholar Thomas Sowell and Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as golfer Tiger Woods.

Notably missing was a more somber mention of the “incredible prejudice and hardship” that African Americans have faced, like the one Trump included in his 2020 proclamation.

This time, he wrote, “As America prepares to enter a historic Golden Age, I want to extend my tremendous gratitude to black Americans for all they have done to bring us to this moment, and for the many future contributions they will make as we advance into a future of limitless possibility under my Administration.”

But as agencies and departments scramble to respond to Trump’s ban on “diversity, equity and inclusion,” those sentiments might be in doubt.

At around the same time the president made his proclamation, the Defense Department, under the headline, “Identity Months Dead at DoD,” announced in a news release that the military would no longer “use official resources” to mark Black History Month or, for that matter, “Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.”

“Efforts to divide the force — to put one group ahead of another — erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution,” the department said.

Meanwhile, federal employees are scrubbing the pronouns out of their emails.

Even before for Pentagon-wide announcement, the Defense Intelligence Agency “paused” recognition of Black History Month. The Air Force even removed a video celebrating the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated unit of Black pilots who fought in World War II, before restoring it.