black history month essay research

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A Black History Month Research Project for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

A Black History Month Research Project is a great way to help your students learn more about and celebrate the impact African Americans have made to the United States.  It's also a good way to help students learn about obstacles African Americans have had to face in this country.  But having 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students conduct research and complete a project based on that research can be an overwhelming task.

Scaffolding this process is essential in order for your students to be successful - and for them to actually stay engaged and excited!

After I fine-tuned the process, this Black History Month Research Project was one of my students' favorite projects all year.  It included researching a famous African American, writing an essay, creating a timeline of their life, and labeling a map.  The upper elementary students remained engaged throughout the entire project and were always very proud of the outcome!

Choosing an African American Hero to Research

Part of making a Black History Month Project meaningful is exposing students to people that they might not be familiar with.  If you let 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students choose who they want to research, you'll probably find that everyone wants to research Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, or Barack Obama.

Instead of simply letting students choose people they are already familiar with, collect a variety of biographies on different African Americans - or find some  kid-friendly biographies online.

Do whatever works for your classroom, as long as you give students an opportunity to introduce themselves to different African Americans.

How I Organized This in My Classroom

There are a lot of different ways you could do this with your students. I would always have my librarian collect enough child-friendly biographies for each student in my class.  We would sit in a circle, and each student would get one of the books.  They had about a minute to look through the book, and then everyone passed their book to the left.

After everyone had looked through every book, students would write down the top 5 people they were interested in researching.  Then, I would look through everybody's choices and assign each student their famous African American to research.

This process got students excited and gave them more ownership over the project.  However, it also allowed me some freedom to make adjustments that would help students be successful and be exposed to different people.

My students used a book from the library as their main source for research, so I wanted to make sure the reading level of the books was appropriate for each of my students.  (If you have a really well-organized classroom library checkout system, this might be easier for you!)

Scaffolding a Black History Month Essay

As all upper elementary teachers know, having students complete research and then use that to write a successful essay is much harder than you would think.

You have to teach students not to copy paragraphs straight from a book or website.  And how to organize a research paper.  And you have to motivate students so that they will actually WANT to write.

This No Prep Black History Month Research Project scaffolds the entire process so students can succeed.  And even better, it will minimize all the one on one time and help students complete their project much more independently.

But there are ways you can scaffold on your own.

1. Model the Project for Your Students

Modeling an entire project takes up a lot of class time, but it makes a huge difference in your students' success.  Plus, it will prevent a lot of student questions later.

This No Prep Black History Month Research Project has all the information you need to use Martin Luther King, Jr. in your modeling.

2. Provide a Research Page with Clear Topics

Instead of having students do their own research on note cards or a blank sheet of paper, provide a research page that tells them exactly what sorts of topics they should be researching.

Otherwise, students have the tendency to copy paragraphs and collect information on irrelevant topics.

Decide what exactly you want your students to learn about - for example, their African American's family, accomplishments, and impact - and create a research page that helps students easily organize that information.  (And, of course, this project also includes research pages.)

3. Scaffold the Writing Process

This might be one of the most important ways to help your students write a successful, organized research paper. Simply providing students with paragraph frames can make a drastic difference and give students more confidence in their writing.

This is similar to this scaffolding you can use when having students write a compare and contrast essay.   Or, use the no prep option with this already ready-to-go Black History Month Project.

Use the Research to Create a Timeline and Map

Use this opportunity to address some other social studies skills - timelines and maps!

Have students use their research to create a timeline of important events in their famous African American's life.  Then, provide students with a blank map and have them color in different states that were important to their African American.

This is a very simple way to make these skills more meaningful to students.

Presenting the Black History Month Project

There is no one right way to have students share their projects.  It really depends on how much time you have!

Here are some options:

• Have students simply turn in their projects.  You could use them to create a bulletin board or just take a grade.
• Have students create a poster with their essay, map, and timeline.  They can present it to the class, or you could make a display.
• Have a Living Wax Museum!  This takes a lot more preparation, but your students and parents will love it.  Find more information on Living Wax Museums here.

If you think this scaffolding would be beneficial to your students as well, then you might like my Black History Month Research Project – Essay, Map, and Timeline Resource.   It includes everything I used to help my students be successful – even a model using Martin Luther King, Jr. so you can show students what is expected of them!

Testimonial:

"This has made doing this research project so much easier! The best part is that samples of the completed steps are included. They always want to copy full sentences instead of making notes, and displaying the sample while they worked led to many more children succeeding without my one to one help."

You might also like these other ideas and resources for teaching during Black History Month - including a freebie!  

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Knowing the Past Opens the Door to the Future: The Continuing Importance of Black History Month

No one has played a greater role in helping all Americans know the black past than Carter G. Woodson, the individual who created Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. Woodson was the second black American to receive a PhD in history from Harvard—following W.E.B. Du Bois by a few years. To Woodson, the black experience was too important simply to be left to a small group of academics. Woodson believed that his role was to use black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift. By 1916, Woodson had moved to DC and established the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and Culture,” an organization whose goal was to make black history accessible to a wider audience. Woodson was a strange and driven man whose only passion was history, and he expected everyone to share his passion.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, late 1940s

This impatience led Woodson to create Negro History Week in 1926, to ensure that school children be exposed to black history. Woodson chose the second week of February in order to celebrate the birthday of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is important to realize that Negro History Week was not born in a vacuum. The 1920s saw the rise in interest in African American culture that was represented by the Harlem Renaissance where writers like Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglass Johnson, Claude McKay—wrote about the joys and sorrows of blackness, and musicians like Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Lunceford captured the new rhythms of the cities created in part by the thousands of southern blacks who migrated to urban centers like Chicago. And artists like Aaron Douglass, Richmond Barthé, and Lois Jones created images that celebrated blackness and provided more positive images of the African American experience.

Woodson hoped to build upon this creativity and further stimulate interest through Negro History Week. Woodson had two goals. One was to use history to prove to white America that blacks had played important roles in the creation of America and thereby deserve to be treated equally as citizens. In essence, Woodson—by celebrating heroic black figures—be they inventors, entertainers, or soldiers—hoped to prove our worth, and by proving our worth—he believed that equality would soon follow. His other goal was to increase the visibility of black life and history, at a time when few newspapers, books, and universities took notice of the black community, except to dwell upon the negative. Ultimately Woodson believed Negro History Week—which became Black History Month in 1976—would be a vehicle for racial transformation forever.

The question that faces us today is whether or not Black History Month is still relevant? Is it still a vehicle for change? Or has it simply become one more school assignment that has limited meaning for children. Has Black History Month become a time when television and the media stack their black material? Or is it a useful concept whose goals have been achieved? After all, few—except the most ardent rednecks - could deny the presence and importance of African Americans to American society or as my then-14 year old daughter Sarah put it, “I see Colin Powell everyday on TV, all my friends—black and white—are immersed in black culture through music and television. And America has changed dramatically since 1926—Is not it time to retire Black History Month as we have eliminated white and colored signs on drinking fountains?” I will spare you the three hour lesson I gave her.

I would like to suggest that despite the profound change in race relations that has occurred in our lives, Carter G. Woodson’s vision for black history as a means of transformation and change is still quite relevant and quite useful. African American history month, with a bit of tweaking, is still a beacon of change and hope that is still surely needed in this world. The chains of slavery are gone—but we are all not yet free. The great diversity within the black community needs the glue of the African American past to remind us of not just how far we have traveled but lo, how far there is to go.

While there are many reasons and examples that I could point towards, let me raise five concerns or challenges that African Americans — in fact — all Americans — face that black history can help address:

The Challenge of Forgetting

You can tell a great deal about a country and a people by what they deem important enough to remember, to create moments for — what they put in their museum and what they celebrate. In Scandinavia — there are monuments to the Vikings as a symbol of freedom and the spirit of exploration. In Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis celebrated their supposed Aryan supremacy through monument and song. While America traditionally revels in either Civil War battles or founding fathers. Yet I would suggest that we learn even more about a country by what it chooses to forget — its mistakes, its disappointments, and its embarrassments. In some ways, African American History month is a clarion call to remember. Yet it is a call that is often unheeded.

Let’s take the example of one of the great unmentionable in American history — slavery. For nearly 250 years slavery not only existed but it was one of the dominant forces in American life. Political clout and economic fortune depended on the labor of slaves. And the presence of this peculiar institution generated an array of books, publications, and stories that demonstrate how deeply it touched America. And while we can discuss basic information such as the fact that in 1860 — 4 million blacks were enslaved, and that a prime field hand cost $1,000, while a female, with her childbearing capability, brought $1,500, we find few moments to discuss the impact, legacy, and contemporary meaning of slavery.

In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution, about to open an exhibition that included slavery, decided to survey 10,000 Americans. The results were fascinating — 92% of white respondents felt slavery had little meaning to them — these respondents often said “my family did not arrive until after the end of slavery.” Even more disturbing was the fact that 79% of African Americans expressed no interest or some embarrassment about slavery. It is my hope that with greater focus and collaboration Black History Month can stimulate discussion about a subject that both divides and embarrasses.

As a historian, I have always felt that slavery is an African American success story because we found ways to survive, to preserve our culture and our families. Slavery is also ripe with heroes, such as slaves who ran away or rebelled, like Harriet Tubman or Denmark Vessey, but equally important are the forgotten slave fathers and mothers who raised families and kept a people alive. I am not embarrassed by my slave ancestors; I am in awe of their strength and their humanity. I would love to see the African American community rethink its connection to our slave past. I also think of something told to me by a Mr. Johnson, who was a former sharecropper I interviewed in Georgetown, SC:

Though the slaves were bought, they were also brave. Though they were sold, they were also strong.

The Challenge of Preserving a People’s Culture

While the African American community is no longer invisible, I am unsure that as a community we are taking the appropriate steps to ensure the preservation of African American cultural patrimony in appropriate institutions. Whether we like it or not, museums, archives, and libraries not only preserves culture they legitimize it. Therefore, it is incumbent of African Americans to work with cultural institutions to preserve their family photography, documents, and objects. While African Americans have few traditions of giving material to museums, it is crucial that more of the black past make it into American cultural repositories.

A good example is the Smithsonian, when the National Museum of American History wanted to mount an exhibition on slavery, it found it did not have any objects that described slavery. That is partially a response to a lack of giving by the African American Community. This lack of involvement also affects the preservation of black historic sites. Though there has been more attention paid to these sites, too much of our history has been paved over, gone through urban renewal, gentrified, or unidentified, or un-acknowledged. Hopefully a renewed Black History Month can focus attention on the importance of preserving African American culture.

There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.

The Challenge of Maintaining a Community

As the African American Community diversifies and splinters, it is crucial to find mechanisms and opportunities to maintain our sense of community. As some families lose the connection with their southern roots, it is imperative that we understand our common heritage and history. The communal nature of black life has provided substance, guidance, and comfort for generations. And though our communities are quite diverse, it is our common heritage that continues to hold us together.

The Power of Inspiration

One thing has not changed. That is the need to draw inspiration and guidance from the past. And through that inspiration, people will find tools and paths that will help them live their lives. Who could not help but be inspired by Martin Luther King’s oratory, commitment to racial justice, and his ultimate sacrifice. Or by the arguments of William and Ellen Craft or Henry “Box” Brown who used great guile to escape from slavery. Who could not draw substance from the creativity of Madame CJ Walker or the audacity and courage of prize fighter Jack Johnson. Or who could not continue to struggle after listening to the mother of Emmitt Till share her story of sadness and perseverance. I know that when life is tough, I take solace in the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, or Gwendolyn Brooks. And I find comfort in the rhythms of Louie Armstrong, Sam Cooke or Dinah Washington. And I draw inspiration from the anonymous slave who persevered so that the culture could continue.

Let me conclude by re-emphasizing that Black History Month continues to serve us well. In part because Woodson’s creation is as much about today as it is about the past. Experiencing Black History Month every year reminds us that history is not dead or distant from our lives.

Rather, I see the African American past in the way my daughter’s laugh reminds me of my grandmother. I experience the African American past when I think of my grandfather choosing to leave the South rather than continue to experience share cropping and segregation. Or when I remember sitting in the back yard listening to old men tell stories. Ultimately, African American History — and its celebration throughout February — is just as vibrant today as it was when Woodson created it 85 years ago. Because it helps us to remember there is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.

Lonnie Bunch Founding Director

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Black History Essay Topics

• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Black history is full of fascinating stories, rich culture, great art, and courageous acts that were undertaken within unthinkable circumstances. While Civil Rights events are the most common themes in our studies, we should resist equating Black history only with Civil Rights-era history. This list contains 50 prompts that might lead you into some interesting and little-known information about Black American history.

Note: Your first challenge in studying some of the topics below is finding resources. When conducting an internet search, be sure to place quotation marks around your search term (try different variations) to narrow your results.

• Black American newspapers
• Black Inventors
• Black soldiers in the American Revolution
• Black soldiers in the Civil War
• Buffalo Soldiers
• Buying time
• Camp Logan Riots
• Clennon Washington King, Jr.
• Coffey School of Aeronautics
• Crispus Attucks
• Domestic labor strikes in the South
• Finding lost family members after emancipation
• First African Baptist Church
• Formerly enslaved business owners
• Freedom's Journal
• Gospel music
• Gullah heritage
• Harlem Hellfighters
• Harlem Renaissance
• Harriet Tubman
• Historically Black Colleges
• History of rock-and-roll
• Jumping the broom
• Manumission papers
• Maroon villages in the eighteenth century
• Motown Records
• Multi-cultural pirate ships
• Narratives by Enslaved People
• Otelia Cromwell
• Ownership of property by enslaved people
• Purchasing freedom
• Ralph Waldo Tyler
• Register of Free Persons of Color
• Secret schools in antebellum America
• Sherman's March followers
• Susie King Taylor
• The Amistad
• The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• The Communist Party (involvement)
• The Great Migration
• The Haitian Revolution
• Tuskegee Airmen
• Underground Railroad
• Urban enslavement (related to buying time)
• Wilberforce College, Ohio
• Celebrating Black History Month
• Important Cities in Black History
• What Is Black History Month and How Did It Begin?
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1900–1919
• Black History Timeline: 1700 - 1799
• Black History Month Printables
• Black History Timeline: 1920–1929
• Black History Timeline: 1910–1919
• Little Known Important Black Americans
• Biography of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black Historian
• Black History Timeline: 1865–1869
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1920-1929
• Black History and Women Timeline 1870-1899
• Black History Timeline: 1940–1949
• Black History from 1950–1959
• Black History and Women Timeline 1860-1869

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Black History Month 2022

February is Black History Month in the U.S., and this year's theme is Black Health and Wellness. NPR has compiled a list of stories, music performances, podcasts and other content that chronicles the Black American experience.

Here's the story behind Black History Month — and why it's celebrated in February

Jonathan Franklin

At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias. Warren K Leffler/Universal History Archive/Getty Images hide caption

At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias.

Every February, the U.S. honors the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who have helped shape the nation. Black History Month celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of our country's history.

This year's theme, Black Health and Wellness , pays homage to medical scholars and health care providers. The theme is especially timely as we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected minority communities and placed unique burdens on Black health care professionals.

TED Radio Hour

Black history month playlist.

"There is no American history without African American history," said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. The Black experience, she said, is embedded in "everything we think of as 'American history.' "

First, there was Negro History Week

Critics have long argued that Black history should be taught and celebrated year-round, not just during one month each year.

It was Carter G. Woodson , the "father of Black history," who first set out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and educate people about Black history and culture, according to W. Marvin Dulaney. He is a historian and the president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ).

Woodson envisioned a weeklong celebration to encourage the coordinated teaching of Black history in public schools. He designated the second week of February as Negro History Week and galvanized fellow historians through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915. (ASNLH later became ASALH.)

The idea wasn't to place limitations but really to focus and broaden the nation's consciousness.

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was an American historian, a scholar and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson was instrumental in launching Negro History Week in 1926. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images hide caption

"Woodson's goal from the very beginning was to make the celebration of Black history in the field of history a 'serious area of study,' " said Albert Broussard, a professor of Afro-American history at Texas A&M University.

The idea eventually grew in acceptance, and by the late 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the U.S. were pivotal to the change.

Colleges and universities also began to hold commemorations, with Kent State University being one of the first, according to Kaplan.

Fifty years after the first celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month during the country's 1976 bicentennial. Ford called upon Americans to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history," History.com reports .

Why February was chosen as Black History Month

February was chosen primarily because the second week of the month coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was influential in the emancipation of slaves , and Douglass, a former slave, was a prominent leader in the abolitionist movement , which fought to end slavery.

Lincoln and Douglass were each born in the second week of February, so it was traditionally a time when African Americans would hold celebrations in honor of emancipation, Kaplan said. (Douglass' exact date of birth wasn't recorded, but he came to celebrate it on Feb. 14.)

Thus, Woodson created Negro History Week around the two birthdays as a way of "commemorating the black past," according to ASALH .

Forty years after Ford formally recognized Black History Month, it was Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, who delivered a message of his own from the White House, a place built by slaves.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host the annual reception for Black History Month at the White House on Feb. 18, 2016. Mike Theiler/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

"Black History Month shouldn't be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history or somehow just boiled down to a compilation of greatest hits from the March on Washington or from some of our sports heroes," Obama said.

"It's about the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high and low, famous and obscure, and how those experiences have shaped and challenged and ultimately strengthened America," he continued.

(Canada also commemorates Black History Month in February, while the U.K. and Ireland celebrate it in October.)

There's a new theme every year

ASALH designates a new theme for Black History Month each year, in keeping with the practice Woodson established for Negro History Week.

This year's Black Health and Wellness theme is particularly appropriate, Dulaney said, as the U.S. continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

"As [Black people], we have terrible health outcomes, and even the coronavirus has been affecting us disproportionately in terms of those of us who are catching it," Dulaney said.

Shots - Health News

More black and latinx americans are embracing covid-19 vaccination.

"There's never been a time where Black people and others should not celebrate Black history," Broussard said. "Given the current racial climate, the racial reckoning that began in wake of George Floyd's murder ... this is an opportunity to learn."

NPR has compiled a list of stories, performances and other content that chronicles the Black American experience for Black History Month. See the whole collection here.

• Black History
• black lives matter
• Black History Month

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• Black History Month
• BHM Reading Challenge

Black History Month: BHM Reading Challenge

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Selected E-Books

The Black Intellectual Tradition

Considering the development and ongoing influence of Black thought From 1900 to the present, people of African descent living in the United States have drawn on homegrown and diasporic minds to create a Black intellectual tradition engaged with ideas on race, racial oppression, and the world. This volume presents essays on the diverse thought behind the fight for racial justice as developed by African American artists and intellectuals; performers and protest activists; institutions and organizations; and educators and religious leaders. By including both women's and men's perspectives from the U.S. and the Diaspora, the essays explore the full landscape of the Black intellectual tradition. Throughout, contributors engage with important ideas ranging from the consideration of gender within the tradition, to intellectual products generated outside the intelligentsia, to the ongoing relationship between thought and concrete effort in the quest for liberation. Expansive in scope and interdisciplinary in practice, The Black Intellectual Tradition delves into the ideas that animated a people's striving for full participation in American life. Contributors: Derrick P. Alridge, Keisha N. Blain, Cornelius L. Bynum, Jeffrey Lamar Coleman, Pero Gaglo Dagbovie, Stephanie Y. Evans, Aaron David Gresson III, Claudrena N. Harold, Leonard Harris, Maurice J. Hobson, La TaSha B. Levy, Layli Maparyan, Zebulon V. Miletsky, R. Baxter Miller, Edward Onaci, Venetria K. Patton, James B. Stewart, and Nikki M. Taylor

To Shape a New World

Martin Luther King, Jr., may be America's most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and street names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King's assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of King's writings and political thought remains underappreciated. In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the marginalization of King's ideas reflects a romantic, consensus history that renders the civil rights movement inherently conservative--an effort not at radical reform but at "living up to" enduring ideals laid down by the nation's founders. On this view, King marshaled lofty rhetoric to help redeem the ideas of universal (white) heroes, but produced little original thought. This failure to engage deeply and honestly with King's writings allows him to be conscripted into political projects he would not endorse, including the pernicious form of "color blindness" that insists, amid glaring race-based injustice, that racism has been overcome. Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with King's understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice. In King's exciting and learned work, the authors find an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our present, and rethink the legacy of this towering figure.

Antagonistic Cooperation

Ralph Ellison famously characterized ensemble jazz improvisation as "antagonistic cooperation." Both collaborative and competitive, musicians play with and against one another to create art and community. In Antagonistic Cooperation, Robert G. O'Meally shows how this idea runs throughout twentieth-century African American culture to provide a new history of Black creativity and aesthetics. From the collages of Romare Bearden and paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat to the fiction of Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison to the music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, O'Meally explores how the worlds of African American jazz, art, and literature have informed one another. He argues that these artists drew on the improvisatory nature of jazz and the techniques of collage not as a way to depict a fractured or broken sense of Blackness but rather to see the Black self as beautifully layered and complex. They developed a shared set of methods and motives driven by the belief that art must involve a sense of community. O'Meally's readings of these artists and their work emphasize how they have not only contributed to understanding of Black history and culture but also provided hope for fulfilling the broken promises of American democracy.

To Make Negro Literature

In To Make Negro Literature Elizabeth McHenry traces African American authorship in the decade following the 1896 legalization of segregation. She shifts critical focus from the published texts of acclaimed writers to unfamiliar practitioners whose works reflect the unsettledness of African American letters in this period. Analyzing literary projects that were unpublished, unsuccessful, or only partially achieved, McHenry recovers a hidden genealogy of Black literature as having emerged tentatively, laboriously, and unevenly. She locates this history in books sold by subscription, in lists and bibliographies of African American authors and books assembled at the turn of the century, in the act of ghostwriting, and in manuscripts submitted to publishers for consideration and the letters of introduction that accompanied them. By attending to these sites and prioritizing overlooked archives, McHenry reveals a radically different literary landscape, revising concepts of Black authorship and offering a fresh account of the development of "Negro literature" focused on the never published, the barely read, and the unconventional.

Desegregating the Past

At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, visitors confront the past upon arrival. They must decide whether to enter the museum through a door marked "whites" or another marked "non-whites." Inside, along with text, they encounter hanging nooses and other reminders of apartheid-era atrocities. In the United States, museum exhibitions about racial violence and segregation are mostly confined to black history museums, with national history museums sidelining such difficult material. Even the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is dedicated not to violent histories of racial domination but to a more generalized narrative about black identity and culture. The scale at which violent racial pasts have been incorporated into South African national historical narratives is lacking in the U.S. Desegregating the Past considers why this is the case, tracking the production and display of historical representations of racial pasts at museums in both countries and what it reveals about underlying social anxieties, unsettled emotions, and aspirations surrounding contemporary social fault lines around race. Robyn Autry consults museum archives, conducts interviews with staff, and recounts the public and private battles fought over the creation and content of history museums. Despite vast differences in the development of South African and U.S. society, Autry finds a common set of ideological, political, economic, and institutional dilemmas arising out of the selective reconstruction of the past. Museums have played a major role in shaping public memory, at times recognizing and at other times blurring the ongoing influence of historical crimes. The narratives museums produce to engage with difficult, violent histories expose present anxieties concerning identity, (mis)recognition, and ongoing conflict.

Justice for All

Civil rights leader and legislator Lloyd A. Barbee frequently signed his correspondence with "Justice for All," a phrase that embodied his life's work of fighting for equality and fairness. An attorney most remembered for the landmark case that desegregated Milwaukee Public Schools in 1972, Barbee stood up for justice throughout his career, from defending University of Wisconsin students who were expelled after pushing the school to offer black history courses, to representing a famous comedian who was arrested after stepping out of a line at a protest march. As the only African American in the Wisconsin legislature from 1965 to 1977, Barbee advocated for fair housing, criminal justice reform, equal employment opportunities, women's rights, and access to quality education for all, as well as being an early advocate for gay rights and abortion access. This collection features Barbee's writings from the front lines of the civil rights movement, along with his reflections from later in life on the challenges of legislating as a minority, the logistics of coalition building, and the value of moving the needle on issues that would outlast him. Edited by his daughter, civil rights lawyer Daphne E. Barbee-Wooten, these documents are both a record of a significant period of conflict and progress, as well as a resource on issues that continue to be relevant to activists, lawmakers, and educators.

Black Public History in Chicago

In civil-rights-era Chicago, a dedicated group of black activists, educators, and organizations employed black public history as more than cultural activism. Their work and vision energized a movement that promoted political progress in the crucial time between World War II and the onset of the Cold War. Ian Rocksborough-Smith's meticulous research and adept storytelling provide the first in-depth look at how these committed individuals leveraged Chicago's black public history. Their goal: to engage with the struggle for racial equality. Rocksborough-Smith shows teachers working to advance curriculum reform in public schools, while well-known activists Margaret and Charles Burroughs pushed for greater recognition of black history by founding the DuSable Museum of African American History. Organizations like the Afro-American Heritage Association, meanwhile, used black public history work to connect radical politics and nationalism. Together, these people and their projects advanced important ideas about race, citizenship, education, and intellectual labor that paralleled the shifting terrain of mid-twentieth-century civil rights.

Strange Fruit, Volume II

Like all legends, people fade away, but not before leaving an incredible legacy. Strange Fruit, Volume II: More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History is a collection of stories from early African American history that represent the oddity of success in the face of great adversity. Each of the eight illustrated chapters chronicles an uncelebrated African American hero or event. Joel Christian Gill offers historical and cultural commentary on heroes whose stories are not often found in history books, such as Cathay Williams, the only known female Buffalo Soldier, and Eugene Bullard, a fighter pilot who flew for France during World War I. These beautifully illustrated stories offer a refreshing look at remarkable African Americans.  The stories included in Volume II are: Jourdan Anderson who requested payment from his former slave owner; Stagecoach Mary Fields, the first African-American female star route mail carrier; Willie Kennard, the Sheriff of the Colorado gold mining town of Yankee Hill; Cathay Williams, the only known female Buffalo Soldier; Blind Tom Wiggins, an autistic musical prodigy; Millie and Christine McCoy, conjoined twins known as "The Two-Headed Nightingale"; Victor Green, the creator and publisher of "The Green Book for the Negro Motorist"; and Eugene Bullard, a fighter pilot who flew for France during WWI.

The Scholar and the Struggle

Lawrence Reddick (1910-1995) was among the most notable African American intellectuals of his generation. The second curator of the Schomburg Library and a University of Chicago PhD, Reddick helped spearhead Carter Woodson's black history movement in the 1930s, guide the Double Victory campaign during World War II, lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Cold War, mentor Martin Luther King Jr. throughout his entire public life, direct the Opportunities Industrialization Center Institute during the 1960s, and forcefully confront institutional racism within academia during the Black Power era. A lifelong Pan-Africanist, Reddick also fought for decolonization and black self-determination alongside Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Leopold Senghor, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Beyond participating in such struggles, Reddick documented and interpreted them for black and white publics alike. In The Scholar and the Struggle, David A. Varel tells Reddick's compelling story. His biography reveals the many essential but underappreciated roles played by intellectuals in the black freedom struggle and connects the past to the present in powerful, unforgettable ways.

Teaching Black History to White People

Leonard Moore has been teaching Black history for twenty-five years, mostly to white people. Drawing on decades of experience in the classroom and on college campuses throughout the South, as well as on his own personal history, Moore illustrates how an understanding of Black history is necessary for everyone. With Teaching Black History to White People, which is "part memoir, part Black history, part pedagogy, and part how-to guide," Moore delivers an accessible and engaging primer on the Black experience in America. He poses provocative questions, such as "Why is the teaching of Black history so controversial?" and "What came first: slavery or racism?" These questions don't have easy answers, and Moore insists that embracing discomfort is necessary for engaging in open and honest conversations about race. Moore includes a syllabus and other tools for actionable steps that white people can take to move beyond performative justice and toward racial reparations, healing, and reconciliation.

Black History

Over the years, history has become the forgotten child of the academic household. Only recently has it been brought to our attention that our students don't know even basic American history. In June 2011, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that U.S. students were less proficient in American history than any other subject. Teachers need to make learning American history fun and stop teaching to the test. Some of the most interesting people and events of the past are often bypassed in the classroom. This includes a large number of African-Americans who helped build this country. Black History: More than Just a Month pays tribute to these forgotten individuals and their accomplishments. There are many individuals who have changed our history and, even if they don't make it onto the state test, their accomplishments deserve attention. Some of the people included are war heroes, inventors, celebrities, and athletes. This book is great for history buffs and will be a good supplement to any history class. Book jacket.

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Black History Month Resource Guide for Educators and Families

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At Center for Racial Justice in Education, we believe that the histories, futures, stories, and voices of Black people should be centered, honored, and uplifted in school curricula every day. We also acknowledge the importance, relevance and origins of Black History Month. In 1926, Carter D. Woodson and the ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) launched “Negro History Week” to promote the studying of African American history as a discipline and to celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans.  Today, we still see the absence of Black history and experience in our textbooks, required readings, STEM, and overall curriculum of our educational system.

As we enter February, the Center for Racial Justice in Education is providing resources to be used beyond the scope of this one-month. Unless Black history is taught throughout the year, it perpetuates an “othering” of Black Lives and Black students, and is also a manifestation of anti-Blackness.  Ensuring the ongoing integration of Black history and experiences throughout all curriculum is imperative as educators continue to uplift every student and reinforce that Black lives matter everyday.

How Do We Celebrate Black History Month? Lesson Plans and Curriculum Resources for Educators:

• Black History Month resources for the Classroom -PBS
• Black History Month – Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
• Creative Resources for Teachers Celebrating Black History Month -Education Week
• Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching – A Resource Guide for Classrooms and Communities
• Discuss Black History All Year Long – Learning for Justice
• 50 Resources for Black History Month – KQED Education
• Black History Month – Library of Congress, et al.
• Black History Month Resources – Archives.gov
• National Endowment for the Humanities – African American History and Culture in the United States
• National Park Service – Black History Month
• Reading Resources – National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Black History Month Lessons & Resources – National Education Association
• Black History Month Resources – ReadingRockets.org
• 6 Teaching Tools for Black History Month – Edutopia
• Black Lives Matter in Schools Resources – D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice
• Black Lives Matter in Education-Week of Action Getting Started Packet – Black Lives Matter in NYC Schools
• Black Lives Matter at School-Resources – Ed Justice
• Resources for Educators: Elementary and Early Childhood – Teaching for Change
• Classroom Flyers, Posters, and Visuals – BLM Educators Group
• Resources for Educators: Middle and High School – Teaching for Change
• BLM National Curriculum Folder – NyCoRE
• Black Lives Matter in Schools Booklists – Social Justice Books
• 28 Days of Black History Month (newsletter) – Anti-Racism Daily

Do We Need Black History Month? The Underrepresentation and Miseducation of Black Stories, Experiences, and Histories in Schools:

• The History Behind Black History Month – Learning for Justice
• Five Things Not to Do During Black History Month – Zaretta Hammond
• Mining the Jewel of Black History Month – Emily Chiariello
• Black History Month Is Over. Now What? – Dena Simmons
• It’s Black History Month. Look in the Mirror. – The NY Times
• Black History Month Isn’t Racist, It’s a Form of Reparations – Jenn M. Jackson
• Teaching Hard History – Learning for Justice
• ‘Black Season’ at My White Middle School – Baratunde Thurston
• Black history is bigger than slavery. We should teach kids accordingly – The Guardian
• What Kids Are Really Learning About Slavery – Melinda D. Anderson
• Why we still need Black History Month in the US – Aljazeera
• 4 Reasons why it’s critical to teach black history – sheknows.com
• America Is Losing the Real Meaning of Black History Month – TIME
• We Teach Racism, Sexism and Discrimination in Schools – HuffPost
• Black History Month Has Ended. Here’s What Experts Think the Black Future Will Look Like – TIME

Why Teach Black Lives Matter in Schools? (Think Pieces):

• Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters | Part I – Learning for Justice
• Bringing Black Lives Matter Into the Classroom | Part II – Learning for Justice
• How One Elementary School Sparked A Citywide Movement To Make Black Students Lives Matter – Rethinking Schools
• Teaching #BlackLivesMatter – Teaching for Change
• Black Students’ Lives Matter – Rethinking Schools
• From MLK to #BlackLivesMatter: A Throughline for Young Students – Learning for Justice
• How to talk to young children about the Black Lives Matter Guiding Principles – Lalena Garcia
• A District Profile | Black Lives Matter at School – Learning for Justice
• How Black Lives Matter Is Changing What Students Learn During Black History Month – TIME

Where Are Afro-Latinos Represented in School Curricula?

• Diaspora Blackness in the Caribbean: A Radical Resource – Medium
• Afro-Latino: A deeply rooted identity among U.S. Hispanics – Pew Research Center
• Anti-Blackness in Latinx Countries is the Result of Deliberate Cultural Policy – Racebaitr
• Let’s talk about phenotype and global Blackness – Black Youth Project
• This Is What It Means To Be Afro-Latino – HuffPost
• Black history month is a token tribute, but Afro-Latinos don’t even have that – The Guardian
• The question of Blackness: How conversations about Bruno Mars and Cardi B miss the mark – Black Youth Project
• Uncovering Anti-Blackness in Casual Conversation: Young Hollywood’s Words to Amara La Negra – Latino Rebels
• The Black History of Latinos – Latino Rebels
• Afro-Latinas Embrace Their Heritage During Black History Month – NBC News

How Do We Center Black Women and Black Girls in Our Schools?

• Celebrate Women This Black History Month – Learning for Justice
• Don’t Forget About Black Girls – Learning for Justice
• The Black Girl Pushout – Melinda D. Anderson
• The Biased Policies That Are Pushing Black Girls Out of School – Dayna Evans
• Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, OverPoliced, and Underprotected – Kimberle Crenshaw with Priscilla Ocen and Jyoti Nanda
• From Preschool to Prison: The Criminalization of Black Girls – Mackenzie Chakara
• Getting Black Trans Women’s Needs Met: An Interview With Phoebe VanCleefe – Huff Post
• #SAYHERNAME: Towards a Gender Inclusive Movement for Black Lives – Brittney Cooper
• Murders of trans women highlight the intersection of racial and gender-based violence – Women’s Media Center
• Centering Black Women, Girls, Gender Nonconforming People, and Fem(me)’s in Campaigns for Expanded Sanctuary and Freedom Cities  – Andrea J. Ritchie and Monique W. Morris, Ed.D
• Rediscovering the Black Girl Magic in literature that was snuffed out of my childhood – Black Youth Project
• Say Her Name: What It Means to Center Black Women’s Experiences of Police Violence – Andrea J. Ritchie

How Do We Center Black LGBTQ Experiences?

• Supporting Black LGBTQ Students – GLSEN
• 100+ LGBTQ Black Women You Should Know: The Epic Black History Month – Marie Lynn Bernard
• Trans Women of Color Collective: Shifting the Narrative – Trans Women of Color Collective
• What it’s like being Black and queer in school – Shantal Otchere
• Black LGBTQ History: Teachers Must Do a Better Job – Learning for Justice
• Black Gay History and the Fight Against AIDS – Dan Royles
• Redesigned pride flag recognizes LGBT people of color -CNN
• Growing Up Gay in Black America: An Exploration of the Coming Out Process of Queer African American Youth – DeMarquis Clarke

As a Parent, What Are Ways I Can Engage My Family in Black History Month?:

• 5 ways to celebrate Black History Month with your family – ChicagoNow.com
• 8 Black History Month Books and Resources for Kids – JusticeJonesie
• Top 15 children’s books for black history month – Family Education
• How to talk to your child about Black History Month (A script) – Mama Knows it All
• Black Children and Black History: The Importance Of Teaching Our Kids the Complexity Of Us – My Brown Baby

Center for Racial Justice in Education

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• HKS Library & Research Services

HKS Library Book Displays

Black history month.

• On Display: Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
• On Display: Jewish American Heritage Month

Harvard Library Resources

Resources around hks & harvard, from the political buttons collection, display books: black resistance.

• Women's History Month
• Arab American Heritage Month
• LGBTQ+ Pride Month
• Disability Pride Month
• Latinx Heritage Month
• LGBTQ History Month
• Native American/Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• July Holidays: U.S. Independence Day, International Non-Binary People's Day, and International Moon Day
• August Holidays: James Baldwin's Birthday, International Day of the World's Indigenous People, and International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
• December Holidays: World AIDS Day, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and International Migrants Day
• AI, Data & Algorithmic Justice
• Antiracism Summer Reading List from the Institutional Antiracism & Accountability (IARA) Project
• Arctic Research
• Banned Books Week
• Equality at Every Size

Ask Your Librarian

Welcome to our digital exhibit celebrating Black History Month . This page is a companion to the physical display in the HKS Library Commons, available through February 2024. Harvard affiliates can request books via HOLLIS, for pick-up at the library of your choice.

This display focuses on Black resistance, featuring texts that recount struggles for Black self-determination in the U.S. from rebellions of enslaved people to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements to Black Lives Matter and beyond. Several of the books in this display are drawn from the African American Intellectual History Society's #Charlestonsyllabus .

On Black resistance, from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH):

"African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores. These efforts have been to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the United States political jurisdiction. The 1950s and 1970s in the United States was defined by actions such as sit-ins, boycotts, walk outs, strikes by Black people and white allies in the fight for justice against discrimination in all sectors of society from employment to education to housing. Black people have had to consistently push the United States to live up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. Systematic oppression has sought to negate much of the dreams of our griots, like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and our freedom fighters, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer fought to realize. Black people have sought ways to nurture and protect Black lives, and for autonomy of their physical and intellectual bodies through armed resistance, voluntary emigration, nonviolence, education, literature, sports, media, and legislation/politics. Black led institutions and affiliations have lobbied, litigated, legislated, protested, and achieved success."

More on Black History Month from the HKS Office of Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging :

" Black History Month celebrates the contributions and achievements that Black Americans have made to U.S. history. It was first celebrated and observed as 'Negro History Week' in 1926 under the leadership of Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian, and the organization which we he co-founded, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) . The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two prominent Americans who positively shaped Black history. In 1976, 50 years after it was first observed, it was extended to a month-long celebration as President Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance. Woodson set the foundation for today's national Black History Month where we collectively celebrate Black history, Black people, and Black joy. However, much work remains in educating Americans about the racial injustices that persist today in the United States of America. As a leading policy school, we must all continue to examine how racist policies of the past which are rooted in white supremacy have had lasting consequences and still continue today in different forms. Black Americans have endured racial oppression and marginalization due to institutional and systemic racism, and if we are to address these injustices, we must take a stand in our everyday lives to fight for racial justice and strive to be anti-racists. So, we encourage the HKS community to critically think about racial inequality, the injustices that persist in the United States, and the role we can play in addressing these challenges. "

Even more on Black History Month:

• " Celebrating the founder of Black History Month " - The Harvard Gazette (February 1, 2022)

For related resources beyond the books in this display - including databases, journals, collections, and more - visit the following research guides.

• [FAS] Music: R&B to Neo Soul (the Library Guide) by Kerry Masteller Last Updated Jun 29, 2022 267 views this year
• AFRAMER 97 Sophomore Tutorial: Understanding Race and Racism by Susan Gilroy Last Updated Feb 9, 2024 388 views this year
• African American Education 1740-1974 by Carla Lillvik Last Updated Oct 16, 2023 1498 views this year
• African American Library Resources at Harvard by Anna Assogba Last Updated Apr 15, 2024 407 views this year
• African American Women by Jennifer Fauxsmith Last Updated Feb 12, 2024 1123 views this year
• Black America and COVID-19 by Sarah DeMott Last Updated Mar 2, 2022 1015 views this year
• Black Teacher Archive Guide by Carla Lillvik Last Updated Sep 22, 2023 431 views this year
• Black Women Oral History Project Interviews, 1976–1981 by Jennifer Fauxsmith Last Updated Jan 19, 2024 4417 views this year
• Environmental Justice and Space, Place, & Identity by George Clark Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 533 views this year
• Hutchins Center Fellows Research Guide by Susan Gilroy Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 128 views this year
• Newly Acquired Published Materials at the Schlesinger Library by Lee Sullivan Last Updated Mar 28, 2024 232 views this year

Additional resources from the HKS Library:

• Racial Justice, Racial Equity, and Anti-Racism Reading List - curated in the wake of violence against Black Americans and in a moment of national reckoning in Summer 2020.
• Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DIB) Collection - books and other resources that represent and celebrate the multitude of identities and backgrounds that make up our vibrant HKS community.
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Research Guide - starting point for research on DEI-related topics like Race & Ethnicity, Gender & Sexuality, Different Abilities, and more.
• Sustainable Change Toward Racial Equity - Behind the Book video with Robert Livingston on The Conversation .
• Does Slavery Still Impact Modern U.S. Politics? - Behind the Book video with Maya Sen and Matthew Blackwell on Deep Roots .
• COLORS and Body of Forensics - HKS student art exhibits that explore race and belonging at the School.

Databases, digital collections, and journals:

• Umbra Search: African American History - search engine for digitized documents and artifacts of African American history from more than 1,000 libraries and archives.
• Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom - Houghton Library's digital collection of materials relating Black experiences in the Americas.
• Oxford African American studies Center (HarvardKey required) - extensive reference resource on the history of African Americans and the African diaspora, including essays, biographies, primary sources, maps, and images.
• The HistoryMakers (HarvardKey required) - oral history archive of interviews with prominent African Americans.
• Journal of African American History (HarvardKey required) - started in 1916, the JAAH is one of the oldest and most significant academic journals in the field of African American studies.
• Journal of Black Studies - significant source for research on Black experiences.
• ProQuest Black Studies (HarvardKey required) - "This database combines multi-format primary and secondary sources, like historical Black newspapers, archival documents, government materials, videos, scholarly journals, essays and more" to support research, teaching, and learning on Black Studies.
• In Focus: Black History Month - curated resources from across Harvard including collections, podcasts, books, articles, and people.
• Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative - deeply researched report on Harvard's ties to slavery and subsequent efforts toward reckoning and repair.
• Black Panther printed ephemera - Houghton Library collection of fliers, newspapers, newsletters, posters, pamphlets and "other items on political change, race relations, health care, etc., largely from Black Panther Party chapters" in Philadelphia, New Haven, and New York.
• Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project - situated within the HKS Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, this project seeks to answer the question, "What policies and practices truly spark antiracist change in organizations?"
• Opposing Racism and Discrimination through Public Policy and Leadership - collection of recent HKS scholarship on race, justice, protest, and policing.
• Justice Matters Podcast - hosted by Carr Center Executive Director Sushma Raman.
• The United States pays reparations every day—just not to Black America - PolicyCast episode with Cornell William Brooks and Linda Bilmes.
• If the Electoral College is a racist relic, why has it endured? - PolicyCast episode with Alex Keyssar.
• Anti-Racism Policy Journal - HKS student journal exploring "the intersection of anti-racism and policy, the history of race and colonialism, and the visions for a just and equitable future."
• HKS Journal of African American Public Policy - HKS student journal that "seeks to educate and provide leadership to improve public policies affecting the African-American community." Explore archived issues of this journal .
• Anti-Racism Policy Caucus - HKS student organization that "examine[s] how policies, practices, and history contribute to structural racism globally."
• Black Student Union - HKS student organization that "strives to create an inclusive environment that advances relevant issues to Black communities."
• Women of Color: Working Beyond the Margins - HKS student organization that "provide[s] an effective support network for Women of Color at HKS and other programs, who are working or plan to work with our respective communities."

The Political Buttons at HKS Collection includes over 1,500 political buttons from the 20th and 21st centuries, representing U.S. political campaigns at every level, ballot initiatives, social issues and movements, and political demonstrations. Curated selections from our Political Buttons Collection are available as interactive digital exhibits, including Decades of Resistance: Political Movement Pins . Below are excerpts from the Civil Rights (1960s) and Racial Justice (1970s) sections of the exhibit.

Beyond the Civil Rights Movement, the fight against systemic anti-Black racism continued throughout the 1970s and into the present-day. Prominent campaigns for racial justice in the 1970s include urban desegregation via   compulsory busing ; defense of   affirmative action in college admission policy   ; the pivotal   Attica Prison Rebellion   for better living conditions and political rights for prisoners; and the   release of Black Panther Angela Davis from prison ."

Read more about:

• Black Panther Party
• Boston desegregation busing crisis
• History of affirmative action in the US

Click on the circular "i" icons to view book descriptions. Click on the Harvard shield icons to access ebooks (Harvard Key required).

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• Last Updated: May 1, 2024 9:19 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/hks/book-displays

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

How Negro History Week Became Black History Month and Why It Matters Now

By Veronica Chambers and Jamiel Law Feb. 24, 2021

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Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States for close to 100 years. But what is it, exactly, and how did it begin?

In the years after Reconstruction, campaigning for the importance of Black history and doing the scholarly work of creating the canon was a cornerstone of civil rights work for leaders like Carter G. Woodson. Martha Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, explained: “These are men [like Woodson] who were trained formally and credentialed in the ways that all intellectuals and thought leaders of the early 20th century were trained at Harvard and places like that. But in order to make the argument, in order to make the claim about Black genius, about Black excellence, you have to build the space in which to do that. There is no room.” This is how they built the room.

On Feb. 20, Frederick Douglass, the most powerful civil rights advocate of his era, dies.

Douglass collapsed after attending a meeting with suffragists, including his friend Susan B. Anthony. A lifelong supporter of women’s rights, Douglass was among the 32 men who signed the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls, N.Y. He once said: “When I ran away from slavery, it was for myself; when I advocated emancipation, it was for my people. But when I stood up for the rights of woman, self was out of the question, and I found a little nobility in the act.”

Douglass was such an animated storyteller that, when he collapsed, his wife thought it was part of the story he was telling her about his day with the suffragists.

Washington, D.C., schools begin to celebrate what becomes known as Douglass Day.

On Jan. 12, 1897, Mary Church Terrell, an educator and community activist, proposed the idea of a school holiday to celebrate Frederick Douglass’s life at a school board meeting for the Washington-area “colored schools.” The school board agreed to set aside the afternoon of Feb. 14, 1897, the date Douglass celebrated as his birthday (he had been born enslaved and did not know his exact date of birth) for students to learn about his life, writing and speeches.

Terrell was an animal lover, and she and her husband had a beloved dog named Nogi. For years, she lobbied the Board of Education to set aside a day when Washington students would be taught and shown the importance of being kind to animals. Animal Day, as she called it, never passed.

Carter G. Woodson, the scholar now known as “the father of Black history,” was inspired to take his work nationwide.

Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875, the son of former enslaved people. He worked as a coal miner before receiving his master’s at the University of Chicago, and he was the second African-American to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard (after W.E.B. DuBois). In the summer of 1915, Dr. Woodson attended the Lincoln Jubilee celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of emancipation in Chicago, featuring exhibitions that highlighted African-Americans’ recent accomplishments. After seeing the thousands of people who attended from across the country, Dr. Woodson was inspired to do more in the spirit of honoring Black history and heritage.

According to an article in The Broad Ax, a weekly Black newspaper in Chicago, the Jubilee celebration included musical performances, garment and furniture making, and a 16-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The movement for Black History grows.

On Sept. 9, 1915, Dr. Woodson formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization to promote the scientific study of Black life and history. (Today, the organization is known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or ASALH.) In 1916, the association established The Journal of Negro History, the first scholarly journal that published researchers’ findings on the historical achievements of Black individuals.

Dr. Woodson believed that “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” To that end, he asked his Omega Psi Fraternity brothers to join him in the work of spreading the importance of Black history. The Omega Psi Fraternity created Negro History and Literature Week in 1924. But Dr. Woodson had even greater aspirations for Negro History to become a significant part of the culture across the country.

Dr. Woodson’s best-known book, “The Miseducation of the Negro,” inspired the title of the groundbreaking album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

In the 1920s, a decade of hope and possibility for Black Americans, Negro History Week begins.

Dr. Woodson believed deeply that a celebration of Black history would have lasting impact on future generations of leaders. As he reportedly told an audience of Hampton University students, “We are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.” Determined to lead the charge to study that history, Dr. Woodson announced the first Negro History Week in February 1926.

He chose February because it was the month in which both Lincoln and Douglass were born. After Lincoln’s assasination, his birthday, on Feb. 12, had been celebrated by Black Americans and Republicans. Douglass Day, which was observed on Feb. 14, had grown in popularity since Mary Church Terrell had started it in Washington in 1897. Dr. Woodson saw Negro History Week as a way to expand the celebration of these two men and encourage Americans to study the little-known history of an entire people.

Every year since 1928, Negro History Week, and later Black History Month, has centered on a theme. This year's theme is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity.”

Growing alongside the Harlem Renaissance, Negro History Week uses every platform at its disposal to spread its message.

Dr. Woodson and his colleagues set an ambitious agenda for Negro History Week. They provided a K-12 teaching curriculum with photos, lesson plans and posters with important dates and biographical information. In an article published in 1932 titled “Negro History Week: The Sixth Year,” Dr. Woodson noted that some white schools were participating in the Negro History Week curriculums and that this had improved race relations. He and his colleagues also engaged the community at large with historical performances, banquets, lectures, breakfasts, beauty pageants and parades.

L.D. Reddick, a historian, heard “the father of Negro history” speak as a child in his hometown, Jacksonville, Fla. Everything about Dr. Woodson, he remembered, produced an effect that was “electric.” As Mr. Reddick wrote, “He handled himself well upon the platform, I thought, moving about very much like a skilled boxer: never hurried, never faltering, sparring skillfully for openings, driving his blows deftly.” Mr. Reddick, who would later collaborate with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his book about the Montgomery bus boycotts, marveled that Dr. Woodson was “easily ... the most impressive speaker that I had ever heard up to that time in my life.”

For rural schools, Dr. Woodson eventually introduced special kits for Negro History Week that could include a list of suggested reading material, speeches by and photos of famous African-Americans, and a play about Black history.

After gaining in renown, Negro History Week becomes Negro History Month and then Black History Month.

Dr. Woodson lectured often in West Virginia, and citizens in that state began celebrating what they called Negro History Month in the 1940s. Dr. Woodson’s organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, formed branches across the country and Negro History Clubs began to appear in high schools. By the time Dr. Woodson died in 1950, mayors across the country supported Negro History Week.

In the 1960s, growing political consciousness among Black college students led to a push for more opportunities to study Black history. In February 1969, students and educators at Kent State University proposed the first Black History Month — and celebrated it in February 1970.

President Gerald Ford supports Black History Month as an important element of the nation’s bicentennial celebrations.

In October 1974, just months after assuming the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford met with civil rights leaders, including Vernon Jordan, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height and Jesse Jackson. As The New York Times reported, the leaders were looking for the president to “make a ‘ringing reaffirmation’ of the nation’s commitment to racial justice and moral leadership.”

Less than two years later, in February 1976, Ford did just that. Drawing on the patriotic significance of the bicentennial he issued a statement on the importance of Black History Month to all Americans. “The last quarter-century has finally witnessed significant strides in the full integration of black people into every area of national life,” he said. “In celebrating Black History Month, we can take satisfaction from this recent progress in the realization of the ideal envisioned by our founding fathers. But, even more than this, we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Every president since Ronald Reagan has issued a Black History Month proclamation.

In 2021, President Biden made his first proclamation in support of Black History Month, announcing: “We do so because the soul of our Nation will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. It is corrosive. It is destructive. It is costly. We are not just morally deprived because of systemic racism, we are also less prosperous, less successful, and less secure as a Nation.”

Why does Black History Month in particular, and the study of Black history overall, still matter so much? “There’s no question that history is and continues to be a battleground. The origin stories that we tell matter a great deal for where we set the bar and how we set the bar going forward,” noted Professor Jones, of Johns Hopkins. “So when you talk about people like Carter G. Woodson, these are men who knew that if you don’t rewrite the history of Africans and people of African descent, if you don’t rewrite the history of the United States through the lens of Black history, if you don’t make that record and if you don’t make that case, there are [false] stories that will expand and go toward rationalizing and perpetuating racism, exclusion, marginalization and more.”

Produced by Rebecca Lieberman, Deanna Donegan, Jeremy Allen, Veronica Chambers, Marcelle Hopkins, Adam Sternbergh, Dodai Stewart and Amanda Webster.

Additional reporting by Lauren Messman.

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Jan. 29, 2021

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Feb. 18, 2021

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Feb. 24, 2021

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Black History Month: The Importance of Knowing African American History

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Updated: 1 December, 2023

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Works Cited:

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• McNair, B. (2018). Gender stereotypes in the media. In The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender (pp. 57-66). Routledge.

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Research & artistry, alumni & giving, a college of liberal arts department, black history month: essay collections, a reading list.

~from Jill Salahub

As we wrap up our celebration of Black History Month , we want to share one more reading list — this time we focus on essay collections. Here are some of our favorites and recommendations.

You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson . Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of the podcast (and now HBO show) 2 Dope Queens, so anything I have to say about Robinson’s book is biased. However, the book was a  New York Times bestseller and Publishers Weekly says it is “Moving, poignant, witty, and funny…a promising debut by a talented, genuinely funny writer,” so it’s not just me. The book’s publisher describes the collection this way: “Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day. Comedian Phoebe Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years…Now, she’s ready to take these topics to the page—and she’s going to make you laugh as she’s doing it.”

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie . A book length essay that aims to give a definition of feminism for the 21st century which. “With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.” For those of you TL;DR, consider checking out her TED Talk of the same name .

The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning,Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian by W. Kamau Bell .  The  New York Times calls Bell “the most promising new talent in political comedy in many years,” and  The New Yorker says of his writing style “Bell’s gimmick is intersectional progressivism: he treats racial, gay, and women’s issues as inseparable.” This collection is “a humorous, well-informed take on the world today, tackling a wide range of issues.” Roxane Gay describes it as “Part memoir. Part riffs on Bell’s interests. Part cultural criticism. The essays all have a meandering quality as if the writer is sitting next to you, telling you a good story. He is particularly good at showing his growth personally and professionally. Lots of warmth and heart and intelligence here.”

Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing edited by Stephanie Stokes Oliver . “Spanning over 250 years of history,  Black Ink  traces black literature in America from Frederick Douglass to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this masterful collection of twenty-five illustrious and moving essays on the power of the written word…Organized into three sections, the Peril, the Power, and Pleasure, and with an array of contributors both classic and contemporary,  Black Ink  presents the brilliant diversity of black thought in America while solidifying the importance of these writers within the greater context of the American literary tradition.”

Love’s Long Line (21st Century Essays) by Sophfronia Scott . “Sophfronia Scott turns an unflinching eye on her life to deliver a poignant collection of essays ruminating on faith, motherhood, race, and the search for meaningful connection in an increasingly disconnected world.”

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Black History Month is an opportunity to understand Black histories. Image:  Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

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Stay up to date:, systemic racism.

This article was originally published in February 2021 and has been updated .

• A continued engagement with history is vital as it helps give context for the present.
• Black History Month is an opportunity to understand Black histories, going beyond stories of racism and slavery to spotlight Black achievement.
• This year's theme is African Americans and the Arts.

February is Black History Month. This month-long observance in the US and Canada is a chance to celebrate Black achievement and provide a fresh reminder to take stock of where systemic racism persists and give visibility to the people and organizations creating change. Here's what to know about Black History Month and how to celebrate it this year:

Have you read?

Black history month: key events in a decade of black lives matter, here are 4 ways businesses can celebrate black history month, how did black history month begin.

Black History Month's first iteration was Negro History Week, created in February 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, known as the "father of Black history." This historian helped establish the field of African American studies and his organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History , aimed to encourage " people of all ethnic and social backgrounds to discuss the Black experience ".

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” ― Carter G. Woodson

His organization was later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and is currently the oldest historical society established for the promotion of African American history.

Why is Black History Month in February?

February was chosen by Woodson for the week-long observance as it coincides with the birthdates of both former US President Abraham Lincoln and social reformer Frederick Douglass. Both men played a significant role in helping to end slavery. Woodson also understood that members of the Black community already celebrated the births of Douglass and Lincoln and sought to build on existing traditions. "He was asking the public to extend their study of Black history, not to create a new tradition", as the ASALH explained on its website.

How did Black History Month become a national month of celebration?

By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil-rights movement and a growing awareness of Black identity, Negro History Week was celebrated by mayors in cities across the country. Eventually, the event evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History month. In his speech, President Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history”.

Since his administration, every American president has recognized Black History Month and its mission. But it wasn't until Congress passed "National Black History Month" into law in 1986 that many in the country began to observe it formally. The law aimed to make all Americans "aware of this struggle for freedom and equal opportunity".

Why is Black History Month celebrated?

Initially, Black History Month was a way of teaching students and young people about Black and African-Americans' contributions. Such stories had been largely forgotten and were a neglected part of the national narrative.

Now, it's seen as a celebration of those who've impacted not just the country but the world with their activism and achievements. In the US, the month-long spotlight during February is an opportunity for people to engage with Black histories, go beyond discussions of racism and slavery, and highlight Black leaders and accomplishments.

What is this year's Black History Month theme?

Every year, a theme is chosen by the ASALH, the group originally founded by Woodson. This year's theme, African Americans and the Arts .

"In the fields of visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary and other forms of cultural expression, the African American influence has been paramount," the website says.

Is Black History Month celebrated anywhere else?

In Canada, they celebrate it in February. In countries like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Ireland, they celebrate it in October. In Canada, African-Canadian parliament member Jean Augustine motioned for Black History Month in 1995 to bring awareness to Black Canadians' work.

When the UK started celebrating Black History Month in 1987, it focused on Black American history. Over time there has been more attention on Black British history. Now it is dedicated to honouring African people's contributions to the country. Its UK mission statement is: "Dig deeper, look closer, think bigger".

Why is Black History Month important?

For many modern Black millennials, the month-long celebration for Black History Month offers an opportunity to reimagine what possibilities lie ahead. But for many, the forces that drove Woodson nearly a century ago are more relevant than ever. As Lonnie G. Bunch III, Director of the Smithsonian Institution said at the opening of the Washington D.C.'s National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016: “There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honouring our struggle and ancestors by remembering".

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Black History Month Project - Research, Essay, Report Template, Worksheets

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Description.

For black history month, have students research a famous African American person and use that research to create an essay, map, and timeline. This no prep resource is scaffolded to help all of your students be successful with completing a project and report writing.

The completed project makes a great black history month bulletin board, or use it to help your students write a black history month ELA report for a wax museum project.

A digital version for use with Google Classroom / Google Slides of the students project has recently been added for your convenience. However, this resource was originally designed as a printable, and the scaffolding will not be as effective digitally. The model using Martin Luther King, Jr. is NOT available digitally currently.

This black history month research project includes:

• a graphic organizer to help students research their African American hero
• a 4 paragraph scaffolded rough draft to help students be successful with informational writing
• a 5 paragraph scaffolded rough draft to help with differentiation
• a revising and editing sheet for their black history month essay
• a final draft writing paper
• a map assignment that has students label states that their African American person had been to
• a timeline assignment to help students create a timeline of important events
• a model of all of the above assignments using Martin Luther King, Jr. so students can see what is expected
• grading rubrics to help you easily assess your students' black history project

The scaffolding helps students successfully complete their black history research, write a black history month report, and complete their map and timeline. You could use this for a black history month informative writing center for your 3rd grade or 4th grade students. This is a great way to teach your students how to write biographies of famous people!

You might also like:

Black History Month Reading Comprehension and Activities

Compare and Contrast: Scaffolded Writing

Kalena Baker, Teaching Made Practical

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