LibGuides: Virtual Displays: Black History Month 2023

Why do we celebrate Black History Month?

Black History Month was created to draw attention to and honor the contributions of African Americans to the United States; however, other countries such as Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom have all officially recognized the holiday. Over the past 53 years, this observance has served as a chance to highlight Black achievement, point out systemic racism, and encourage visibility to people and organizations advocating for change.

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston; Alice Walker (Foreword by); Deborah G. Plant (Introduction by)
Call Number: 306.362092 L673H
ISBN: 9780062864369
Publication Date: 2018-05-08
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past--memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.
Changing Academia Forever by Kitty Kelly Epstein; Bernard Stringer
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781975502737
Publication Date: 2020-01-31
The most effective and long-lasting student strike in U.S. History took place at San Francisco State College in 1968. The first Black Student Union, the first Black Studies Department, the only College of Ethnic Studies, and the admission of thousands of students of color resulted from this four-and-a-half-month strike which shut down 80% of the campus. It has been called the movement which "changed academia forever." Black students were only a small percentage of those on campus, but they managed to engage thousands of white, Latino, Asian, and indigenous students; SDS and the Third World Liberation Front; the faculty union; and a huge portion of the San Francisco Community. In the end, they were able to win most of their 15 demands.
Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100 Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture by Robert Wilkins
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780997910438
Publication Date: 2016-09-13
In Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100 Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Robert L. Wilkins tells the story of how his curiosity about why there wasn't a national museum dedicated to African American history and culture became an obsession eventually leading him to quit his job as an attorney when his wife was seven months pregnant with their second child, and make it his mission to help the museum become a reality. Long Road to Hard Truth chronicles the early history, when staunch advocates sought to create a monument for Black soldiers fifty years after the end of the Civil War and in response to the pervasive indignities of the time, including lynching, Jim Crow segregation, and the slander of the racist film Birth of a Nation.
Move on Up by Aaron Cohen
Call Number: 306.484 C678
ISBN: 9780226176079
Publication Date: 2019-09-25
Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago's place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s was more than just a series of hits: it was a marker and a source of black empowerment. In Move On Up, Aaron Cohen tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived. Record producers and song-writers broadcast optimism for black America's future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions for the Dells and many others. Curtis Mayfield boldly sang of uplift with unmistakable grooves like "We're a Winner" and "I Plan to Stay a Believer." Musicians like Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used their music to voice Afrocentric philosophies that challenged racism and segregation, while Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chaka Khan created music that inspired black consciousness. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation: as Chicago's homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago's black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation, all against a backdrop of nationwide deindustrialization. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic's passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil.
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison; Ta-Nehisi Coates (Foreword by)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780674982628
Publication Date: 2017-09-11
America's foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others.
Voices of the African American Experience [3 Volumes] by Lionel C. Bascom (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780313343483
Publication Date: 2009-03-20
From early accounts of free blacks in the Colonies to slave narratives recorded by Works Progress Administration employees in the 1930s to a recent speech by Senator Barack Obama, this collection offers a treasure trove of carefully selected primary documents from and concerning African Americans. It is among the largest and widest-ranging collection of documents on the entire African American experience in print. Voices of the African American Experience provides access to fresh voices from history until today in more than 130 documents.

These titles and more can be found on display in the Eileen & Robert McDowell Reading Room or online through our catalog and databases.

Black America since MLK: And Still I Rise by Henry Louis Gates Jr.,(Screenwriter)(Host)Leslie Asako Gladsjo(Director)Talleah Bridges McMahon(Producer)(Director)Sabin Streeter(Director); etc
Call Number: DVD 973.0496 B627
ISBN: 9781627898065
Publication Date: 2016
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. embarks on a deeply personal journey through the last fifty years of African American history. Joined by leading scholars, celebrities, and a dynamic cast of people who shaped these years, Gates travels from the victories of the civil rights movement up to today, asking profound questions about the state of black America, and our nation as a whole.
The Book of Negroes by Clement Virgo(Television director)(Screenwriter)(Television producer)Aunjanue Ellis(Actor)Lyriq Bent(Actor)Ben Chaplin(Actor); etc.
Call Number: DVD 791.4572 B724
Publication Date: 2015
A universal story of loss, courage and triumph, this recounts the extraordinary journey of Aminata Diallo, an indomitable African woman who survives in a world in which everything seems to be against her. Kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa then sold into slavery in South Carolina, Aminata navigates her way through the American Revolution in New York, the isolated refuge of Nova Scotia, and the treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, before finally securing her freedom in England.
King: Go Beyond the Dream to Discover the Man by Tim Beacham (Producer)(Screenwriter) Tom Keenan (Producer)(Screenwriter) Shoshana Guy (Producer)(Screenwriter) Tom Brokaw (Narrator); etc.
Call Number: DVD 323.4092 K53k
ISBN: 9781422911822
Publication Date: 2008
Forty years after Martin Luther King's assassination, HISTORY, with newsman Tom Brokaw, takes viewers through the extraordinary life and times of America's civil rights visionary. KING goes beyond the legend to portray the man, the questions, the myths, and most importantly, the relevance of Dr. King's message in today's world.
The March: The Story of the Greatest March in American History by Lina Gopaul (Television producer) David Lawson (Producer),(Television producer) John Akomfrah (Television director) Denzel Washington 1954-(Narrator); etc
Call Number: DVD 323.1196 M315
ISBN: 9781608839582
Publication Date: 2013
Witness the compelling and dramatic story of the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. This watershed event in the Civil Rights Movement helped change the face of America. Recounts the events when 250,000 people came together to form the largest demonstration the young American democracy had ever seen.
March to Freedom: A 400 Year History from Slavery to Salvation by Kevin R Hershberger(Director)(Producer)Baron Blakley(Screenwriter)Heather Bischoff(Screenwriter)Coby Batty(Narrator); etc.
Call Number: DVD 973.0496 M315
Publication Date: 2016
With historic reenactments, expert interviews, and first-hand accounts, learn about the people, bloody wars, and undenieable truths that have brought us up from slavery to emancipation road on the march to freedom

These titles and more can be found on display in the Eileen & Robert McDowell Reading Room or online through our catalog and databases.

American Experience: Voice of Freedom

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Follow the story of singer Marian Anderson, whose talent broke down barriers around the world. Narrated by Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton), Voice of Freedom explores questions about talent, race, fame, democracy and the American soul.

Between the World and Me

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First published in 2015, Between The World And Me was written as a letter to Coates' teenage son, and recounts the author's experiences growing up in Baltimore's inner city and his growing fear of daily violence against the Black community. The narrative explores Coates' bold notion that American society structurally supports white supremacy. Based on the 2018 adaptation and staging of the book at the Apollo Theater, this HBO Special combines elements of the Apollo's production, including powerful readings from Coates' book, and incorporates documentary footage from the actors' home life, archival footage, and animation.

TEDTalks: David Ikard - The Real Story of Rosa Parks -- And Why We Need to Confront Myths about Black History

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Black history taught in US schools is often watered-down, riddled with inaccuracies and stripped of its context and rich, full-bodied historical figures. Equipped with the real story of Rosa Parks, professor David Ikard highlights how making the realities of race more benign and digestible harms us all -- and emphasizes the power and importance of historical accuracy.

BlackPast

"BlackPast is dedicated to providing reliable information on the history of Black people across the globe, and especially in North America. Our goal is to promote greater understanding of our common human experience through knowledge of the diversity of the Black experience and the ubiquity of the global Black presence." (Homepage)

Black History Month.gov

"The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society" (Homepage) This website features exhibits, collections, media content, and teaching resources from these various government organizations.

Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)

"The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community." (About)