# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Book Talk - Online

February 2

Online Panel Discussion

February 6

Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets Opening Panel
Join us for a virtual panel discussion to kick off the Anacostia Community Museum's outdoor installation of the Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets exhibition. The social unrest of 2020 has illuminated the active presence of institutionalized racism in America and its impact on the Black community. CNN Correspondent Omar Jimenez will moderate this discussion between panelists Jonathan Jackson, founding partner of the design firm We Should Do it All; Dr. Rob Gore, founder of the youth intervention program, Kings Against Violence Initiative; and artist Tariku Shiferaw.

(Smithsonian Institution)

Historical Reenactor

February 11

Young Learners Program - Meet Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman is portrayed by Daisy Century, a talented teacher and inspirational actor with American Historical Theatre. Harriet Tubman's indomitable spirit, valor, and fearless actions as an abolitionist, Union nurse and spy, suffragist, and humanitarian continue to inspire children and adults today. A question-and-answer session with Harriet Tubman will follow the presentation.
View on YouTube

(National Archives)

Book Talk - Online

February 18

Giants of Racial Justice
In an event celebrating African American History Month, Peniel E. Joseph ("The Sword and the Shield") and Tamara Payne ("The Dead Are Arising") will discuss their books on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. with NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans. This event will be premiered on Facebook and YouTube and on the Library of Congress website.

(Library of Congress)

Lecture - Online

February 25

On the Road with Jason Reynolds
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Jason Reynolds will discuss his ambassadorship, including his recent "GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story" virtual tour, with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Through his platform, "GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story," Reynolds has directed his focus as ambassador by empowering students to embrace and share their own personal stories. This event will be premiered on Facebook and YouTube and on the Library of Congress website.

(Library of Congress)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
February 2 February 6 Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets Opening Panel Join us for a virtual panel discussion to kick off the Anacostia Community Museum's outdoor installation of the Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets exhibition.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Stanger Black History Month Calendar

# data[].attributes.subject
The Stanger Black History Month Calendar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Seattle Black History Month Events Calendar - The Stranger

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Seattle's best and most comprehensive guide to Black History Month events.

# data[].attributes.headline
National Education Association BHM Resources

# data[].attributes.subject
National Education Association BHM Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore articles and videos of some of the most prominent African Americans in politics, the arts, law, science and sports who have made Black History what it is today.

# data[].attributes.headline
Association For The Study of African American Life and History

# data[].attributes.subject
Association For The Study of African American Life and History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
ASALH | The Founders of Black History Month (est. 1915)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Thousands of African Americans travelled from across the country to see exhibits highlighting the progress their people had made since the destruction of slavery. Awarded a doctorate in Harvard three years earlier, Woodson joined the other exhibitors with a black history display. Despite being held at the Coliseum, the site of the 1912 Republican convention, an overflow crowd of six to twelve thousand waited outside for their turn to view the exhibits. Inspired by the three-week celebration, Woodson decided to form an organization to promote the scientific study of black life and history before leaving town. On September 9th, Woodson met at the Wabash YMCA with A. L. Jackson and three others and formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).

He hoped that others would popularize the findings that he and other black intellectuals would publish in The Journal of Negro History, which he established in 1916. As early as 1920, Woodson urged black civic organizations to promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering. A graduate member of Omega Psi Phi, he urged his fraternity brothers to take up the work. In 1924, they responded with the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they renamed Negro Achievement Week. Their outreach was significant, but Woodson desired greater impact. As he told an audience of Hampton Institute students, "We are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements." In 1925, he decided that the Association had to shoulder the responsibility. Going forward it would both create and popularize knowledge about the black past. He sent out a press release announcing Negro History Week in February, 1926.

Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively. More importantly, he chose them for reasons of tradition. Since Lincoln's assassination in 1865, the black community, along with other Republicans, had been celebrating the fallen President's birthday. And since the late 1890s, black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass'. Well aware of the pre-existing celebrations, Woodson built Negro History Week around traditional days of commemorating the black past. He was asking the public to extend their study of black history, not to create a new tradition. In doing so, he increased his chances for success.

Yet Woodson was up to something more than building on tradition. Without saying so, he aimed to reform it from the study of two great men to a great race. Though he admired both men, Woodson had never been fond of the celebrations held in their honor. He railed against the "ignorant spellbinders" who addressed large, convivial gatherings and displayed their lack of knowledge about the men and their contributions to history. More importantly, Woodson believed that history was made by the people, not simply or primarily by great men. He envisioned the study and celebration of the Negro as a race, not simply as the producers of a great man. And Lincoln, however great, had not freed the slaves-the Union Army, including hundreds of thousands of black soldiers and sailors, had done that. Rather than focusing on two men, the black community, he believed, should focus on the countless black men and women who had contributed to the advance of human civilization.

From the beginning, Woodson was overwhelmed by the response to his call. Negro History Week appeared across the country in schools and before the public. The 1920s was the decade of the New Negro, a name given to the Post-War I generation because of its rising racial pride and consciousness. Urbanization and industrialization had brought over a million African Americans from the rural South into big cities of the nation. The expanding black middle class became participants in and consumers of black literature and culture. Black history clubs sprang up, teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils, and progressive whites stepped and endorsed the efforts.

Woodson and the Association scrambled to meet the demand. They set a theme for the annual celebration, and provided study materials-pictures, lessons for teachers, plays for historical performances, and posters of important dates and people. Provisioned with a steady flow of knowledge, high schools in progressive communities formed Negro History Clubs. To serve the desire of history buffs to participate in the re-education of black folks and the nation, ASNLH formed branches that stretched from coast to coast. In 1937, at the urging of Mary McLeod Bethune, Woodson established the Negro History Bulletin, which focused on the annual theme. As black populations grew, mayors issued Negro History Week proclamations, and in cities like Syracuse progressive whites joined Negro History Week with National Brotherhood Week.

Like most ideas that resonate with the spirit of the times, Negro History Week proved to be more dynamic than Woodson or the Association could control. By the 1930s, Woodson complained about the intellectual charlatans, black and white, popping up everywhere seeking to take advantage of the public interest in black history. He warned teachers not to invite speakers who had less knowledge than the students themselves. Increasingly publishing houses that had previously ignored black topics and authors rushed to put books on the market and in the schools. Instant experts appeared everywhere, and non-scholarly works appeared from "mushroom presses." In America, nothing popular escapes either commercialization or eventual trivialization, and so Woodson, the constant reformer, had his hands full in promoting celebrations worthy of the people who had made the history.

Well before his death in 1950, Woodson believed that the weekly celebrations-not the study or celebration of black history-would eventually come to an end. In fact, Woodson never viewed black history as a one-week affair. He pressed for schools to use Negro History Week to demonstrate what students learned all year. In the same vein, he established a black studies extension program to reach adults throughout the year. It was in this sense that blacks would learn of their past on a daily basis that he looked forward to the time when an annual celebration would no longer be necessary. Generations before Morgan Freeman and other advocates of all-year commemorations, Woodson believed that black history was too important to America and the world to be crammed into a limited time frame. He spoke of a shift from Negro History Week to Negro History Year.

In the 1940s, efforts began slowly within the black community to expand the study of black history in the schools and black history celebrations before the public. In the South, black teachers often taught Negro History as a supplement to United States history. One early beneficiary of the movement reported that his teacher would hide Woodson's textbook beneath his desk to avoid drawing the wrath of the principal. During the Civil Rights Movement in the South, the Freedom Schools incorporated black history into the curriculum to advance social change. The Negro History movement was an intellectual insurgency that was part of every larger effort to transform race relations.

The 1960s had a dramatic effect on the study and celebration of black history. Before the decade was over, Negro History Week would be well on its way to becoming Black History Month. The shift to a month-long celebration began even before Dr. Woodson death. As early as 1940s, blacks in West Virginia, a state where Woodson often spoke, began to celebrate February as Negro History Month. In Chicago, a now forgotten cultural activist, Fredrick H. Hammaurabi, started celebrating Negro History Month in the mid-1960s. Having taken an African name in the 1930s, Hammaurabi used his cultural center, the House of Knowledge, to fuse African consciousness with the study of the black past. By the late 1960s, as young blacks on college campuses became increasingly conscious of links with Africa, Black History Month replaced Negro History Week at a quickening pace. Within the Association, younger intellectuals, part of the awakening, prodded Woodson's organization to change with the times. They succeeded. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, the Association used its influence to institutionalize the shifts from a week to a month and from Negro history to black history. Since the mid-1970s, every American president, Democrat and Republican, has issued proclamations endorsing the Association's annual theme.

What Carter G. Woodson would say about the continued celebrations is unknown, but he would smile on all honest efforts to make black history a field of serious study and provide the public with thoughtful celebrations.

Daryl Michael Scott
dms@darylmichaelscott.com
Professor of History
Howard University
Vice President of Program, ASALH
© 2011, 2010, 2009 ASALH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ASALH - The Founders of Black History Month | Origins of Black History Month

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When I think of the notable Black History Month figures I was taught about in grade school very few openly queer people come to mind. Sure, folks like James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Bessie Smith were sometimes mentioned, but their LGBTQ+ identities usually weren't. Perhaps that's because the South Carolina public education system, like many others, is trash. Or, more likely, it's because teaching any sort of LGBTQ+ history was taboo and their identities as queer people were deemed secondary to their Blackness, and therefore not worthy enough of even a quick aside.

As we head into another 28 days of celebrating historical Black excellence, it's important to center the legacies of Black LGBTQ+ people. It's the least we can do to present a full, nuanced idea of America's Black experience. Black queer futures depend on it.

Black History Month began as " Negro History Week" in 1926 in the United States to create a coordinated effort in public schools nationwide to teach Black history. Historian Carter G. Woodson felt that "if a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated." Though initially not widely accepted, by 1970, at the proposal of Black educators and students at Kent State University, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Six years later, the yearly celebration was officially endorsed by President Gerald Ford.

What's resulted in the decades since is supposed to be an opportunity for white people and their institutions to redress their perpetual erasure of the roles of Black folks in building this country on our backs, and for Black people and our institutions to honor an undaunted and ever-persisting ancestry. What we've been given however is a rote acknowledgement of the same five people - Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, Madame C.J. Walker, and Malcolm X. And the queer folks who wrote, spoke, marched, disrupted, and made history alongside them are often left out - and if they are mentioned, their queerness is either sensationalized, like King's confidante Rustin, or wholly ignored.

I didn't realize how much this mattered until people began asking me about my role models and sources of inspiration. As I mined the deepest recesses of my mind, I often came up empty, or with legendary queer folks who were still alive. This wasn't a problem per se, and I could've easily named a slew of men and women who attended Morehouse and Spelman Colleges and went on to make history or countless straight Black folks who've impacted the culture at large. But I felt it betrayed the rich history of Black queer folks to which I belong to do so. It seemed as if my history began with the likes of Laverne Cox, Don Lemon, and Jason Collins as opposed to these Black LGBTQ+ people taking up the mantle our queer ancestors had left for us.

In fact, it was years earlier when I was a student at Morehouse that I noticed how my Black History Month education had failed me. A group of queer students were in the early stages of organizing an effort to get a portrait of Bayard Rustin added to our school's Hall of Honor located in our chapel named after King (our most famous graduate) that includes over 150 oil portraits of global leaders of the international civil and human rights movements. At the time, I had heard of Rustin but didn't know he was gay, and openly so, while serving as King's confidante and the chief orchestrator of the March on Washington. This information, in a lot of ways, gave me the courage - and the permission - to more formally join the queer political organizing happening on campus.

The traditional Black History canon has betrayed Black queer people, and in turn the entire Black community, with the same names being trotted out each year for obligatory book reports, school plays, and sermons. And we can blame having a problematic religion forced on us or the supposed hyper homophobia of the Black community for it all. Or we can acknowledge that we're all complicit in this erasure.

What then, to spin Frederick Douglass' notable speech, to the Black queer person is Black History Month? I see it as an opportunity for us to resurrect the legacies of the Sylvester's, the Moms Mabley's, the Glenn Burke's, and the Lucy Hicks Anderson's. It's a chance to pay homage to those who paved the way for the Janet Mock's, the Lena Waithe's, and the Andrea Jenkins'. And to Woodson's original point, it's a continual chance to assert the histories of our communities that've been lost or altogether not recorded in the annals.

At Out, we've decided to produce a month's worth of content centering Black queer excellence, on top of the work we're already doing to be more inclusive. Beyond that, I encourage you to learn more about Black queer culture. Use your platforms, however large or small, to uplift - during February and after - Black queer history. Consider donating to an organization that carries and supports Black queer legacies.

It's said that one can't know where they're going if they don't know from where they've come. My beautiful communities, we, too, have been here, have been Black and queer, and still aren't going anywhere.
RELATED | Op-ed: Bayard Rustin's Legacy Is Complicated, And That's Okay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black History Month Includes Black Queer History, Too

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When I think of the notable Black History Month figures I was taught about in grade school very few openly queer people come to mind. Sure, folks like James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Bessie Smith were sometimes mentioned, but their LGBTQ+ identities usually weren't.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Books shelved as black-history-month: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Between the World and Me by T...

# data[].attributes.headline
Black History Month Google Drive library

# data[].attributes.subject
Black History Month Google Drive library

# data[].attributes.headline
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Race by Robin D'Angelo

# data[].attributes.subject
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Race by Robin D'Angelo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
White Fragility - The Seattle Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
White Fragility Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (eBook) : DiAngelo, Robin J. : Groundbreaking book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequalityIn this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility.

# data[].attributes.headline
So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

# data[].attributes.subject
So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is an excellent and helpful book! If you are a person who thinks of yourself as white (as Ta-nehesi Coates put it) and you want to understand how racism negatively affects people of color in every aspect of their lives, please read this book. It is very clear and direct, and gives very practical and down to earth advice about how to think and talk about race, and how to take action that is helpful.

There are early chapters entitled "Is it really about race?" (which explains that while economic class is important, people of color are worse off at every economic level) and "What is racism?" (it is not just the racial prejudice of individuals; it is all of the systems and institutions that discriminate against and oppress people of color, such as the school to prison pipeline) and "What if I talk about race wrong?" (short answer: you probably will, but here are some tips on how to stay on track and not let emotions override what you are trying to say).

I thought one of the best chapters was "Why am I always being told to 'check my privilege'?" It is really important for those of us who think of ourselves as white to understand that there are so many areas of life where we have advantages that we take for granted and do not even notice. The author lists many questions we should all ask ourselves about our relative privilege. In every area we are privileged, we have the power and access to change the system as a whole. This book is written for those who want to fight the systemic oppression that is harming the lives of millions of people of color.

Other chapters that I found especially affecting were "Is police brutality really about race?" (in a word, YES), "What is the school to prison pipeline?", and "What are microaggressions?"

The chapter about microaggressions was heartbreaking. People of color endure rude and cruel comments (and actions) constantly made by others, often without the speaker even realizing the impact of his or her words or actions. The cumulative impact of these constant small wounds (like dozens of cuts) is painful, exhausting, stressful and miserable. Because microaggressions come from many different people, and they are small, it is not possible to address each one as it happens. Ms. Oluo lists a page and a half of examples of things people have said. Then she describes actions, such as the salesperson following a person of color around the store (to make sure he or she does not shoplift), or fellow customers who assume a person of color is an employee, or people who clutch their purses or other possessions tighter when passing a person of color.

Ms. Oluo then gives advice both for the person of color who has been a victim of a microaggression, and to the person who committed the microaggression and who has been called out. If we are going to stop this behavior, we people who think of ourselves as white have to be aware of what it is (so we can stop doing it), why it hurts, and what to do if we screw up.

The last two chapters, "I just got called racist, what do I do now?" and "Talking is great, but what else can I do?" are especially full of helpful, practical suggestions. There are all kinds of things we can do. There is a ton of great information in this book.

The bottom line is: Everyone is negatively affected by racism. People of color bear the brunt of it, but we all lose out when people of color do not have the same opportunities to participate and contribute as "white" people. We need to embrace the gifts and perspectives of everyone. We all need to be outraged by racism and start doing what we can to solve it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
So You Want to Talk About Race - The Seattle Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
So You Want to Talk About Race (Book) : Oluo, Ijeoma : "A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.

# data[].attributes.headline
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

# data[].attributes.subject
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains - whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains."

(This book opens with a quote from Richard Wright that contains the title of the book):

And one morning while in the woods I stumbled suddenly upon the thing, stumbled upon it in a grassy clearing guarded by scaly oaks and elms. And the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting themselves between the world and me.

Add Notices

Violence: Murders of African American men

Add Age Suitability

Add a Summary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Between the World and Me - The Seattle Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Between the World and Me (Book) : Coates, Ta-Nehisi : "For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear ...

# data[].attributes.headline
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemesin

# data[].attributes.subject
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemesin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Long 'til Black Future Month? - The Seattle Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How Long 'til Black Future Month? (Book) : Jemisin, N. K. : N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Fire Next Time - The Seattle Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Fire Next Time (Book) : Baldwin, James : A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Dangers Of White Washing Black History

# data[].attributes.subject
The Dangers Of White Washing Black History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History | David Ikard | TEDxNashville

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter | Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi