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In February, celebrate Black History Month with Smithsonian events, resources, exhibitions, and podcasts. The 2024 theme is "African Americans and the Arts" spanning the many impacts Black Americans have had on visual arts, music, cultural movements, and more.

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Black History Month | Smithsonian Institution

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National Park Service-Black History Month

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National Park Service-Black History Month

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Dr. Carter G. Woodson, pictured c.a. 1915, is universally known as the "Father of Black History."
Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, NMAH, Smithsonian Institution

Black History Month, or African American History Month, began as a weeklong celebration in 1926. Since the 1890s, Black communities celebrated the birthdays of two people considered to have a big impact on Black history in the US: Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). In 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson was one of many people who traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in a national celebration of the 50th anniversary of nationwide emancipation. He was inspired by experiences from his trip to create an organization to promote the study of Black life and history. Soon after he helped to form what is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the sponsors of Black History Month.

Dr. Woodson dedicated his life to institutionalizing the field of Black history, including by advocating that it be a regular part of formal education. In 1926, he created the celebration of "Negro History Week" during the second week of February timed with the birthdays of Lincoln and Douglass. Dr. Woodson and other advocates provided educational materials each year, such as lesson plans, pictures, scripts for historical performances, and posters. Fifty years later, the weeklong celebration became a month long and has been recognized by presidential proclamation every year since.

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Black History Month - NPS Celebrates! (U.S. National Park Service)

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Black History Month, or African American History Month, began as a weeklong celebration in 1926. Since the 1890s, Black communities celebrated the birthdays of two people considered to have a big impact on Black history in the US: Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). In 1915, Dr. Carter G.

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Research Guides: W. E. B. Du Bois: A Resource Guide: Introduction

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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, and poet. This guide provides access to digital materials related to Du Bois from the Library of Congress, links to external websites, and a selected print bibliography.

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Smithsonian Institute- Separate is Not Equal

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Smithsonian Institute- Separate is Not Equal

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The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land.

Brown v. Board of Education reached the Supreme Court through the fearless efforts of lawyers, community activists, parents, and students. Their struggle to fulfill the American dream set in motion sweeping changes in American society, and redefined the nation's ideals.

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Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education

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The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land.

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Introduction | Resource Bank Index | Teacher's Guide Contents | Youth Activity Guide | The TV Series and Beyond

Major funding for Africans in America is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

National sponsorship is provided by Bankers Trust, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and McDonald's.

Additional funding is provided by the Ford Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Stratford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.

Major funding for the Africans in America Web site is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Africans in America Web site
is a production of WGBH Interactive for PBS Online.
© 1998 WGBH Educational Foundation.

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Introduction | Resource Bank Index | Teacher's Guide Contents | Youth Activity Guide | The TV Series and Beyond Major funding for Africans in America is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. National sponsorship is provided by Bankers Trust, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and McDonald's.

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8 Black Doctors and Nurses Who Changed Health Care

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Charles Drew, Mary Mahoney, and James McNune Smith are among the African American pioneers in the medical profession.

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Celebrating Black History Month | Poetry Foundation

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Poems, articles, and podcasts that explore African American history and culture.

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10 Black Scientists You Should Know About

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10 Black Scientists You Should Know About

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Ten Black Scientists That Science Teachers Should Know About

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Help your students see the possibilities of careers in STEM fields by providing them with diverse role models.

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This list featuring the books of 100 wonderful Black authors, illustrators, and poets is meant to help introduce readers to some of the many African American creators who are celebrated in the field of children's literature and tell important truths and stories that captivate kids. Some you may already be familiar with, and some are newer voices. Many create books for all ages of readers. Getting to know them all gives readers the opportunity to find favorite writers to grow with.

Find these titles by Black authors and more reading recommendations at your local library through World Cat.

Picture Books and Elementary

Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed

Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick D. Barnes

Song in the City by Daniel Bernstrom

Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham

Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Words to My Life's Song by Ashley Bryan

My Hair Is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Freedom Soup by Tami Charles

Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry

Everett Anderson's Goodbye by Lucille Clifton

Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Music Is a Rainbow by Bryan Collier

Max and the Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper

Bigmama's by Donald Crews

My Aunt Came Back by Pat Cummings

Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield

Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman

Big by Vashti Harrison

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard

The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita L. Hubbard

Sing A Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons

Saturday by Oge Mora

The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship by Ibtihaj Muhammad

My Pen by Christopher Myers

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

The Little Mermaid by Jerry Pinkney

Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children by Sandra L. Pinkney

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

You Matter by Christian Robinson

Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange

I Am America by Charles R. Smith

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe

It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw by Don Tate

Brown Honey In Broomwheat Tea: Poems by Joyce Carol Thomas

Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Nana Akua Goes to School by Tricia Elam Walker

Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Middle Grade

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero by Kelly J. Baptist

Rise of the Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

School Trip by Jerry Craft

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Last Last-Day-Of-Summer by Lamar Giles

Words With Wings by Nikki Grimes

The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson

The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth edited by Wade Hudson & Cheryl Willis Hudson

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

From The Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

Tristan Strong Punches A Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison

Polo Cowboy by G. Neri

Calico Girl by Jerdine Nolen

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds

Root Magic by Eden Royce

The Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarpley

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Justin and the Best Biscuits in The World by Mildred Pitts Walter

Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia Williams

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Aanu Zoboi

Young Adult

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

by Mahogany L. Browne

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis

Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper

Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott

The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

We Are Not Broken by George M. Johnson

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon

Best Shot in the West: The Thrilling Adventures of Nat Love by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack Jr.

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

by Amber McBride

Slay by Brittney Morris

The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Push: A Novel by Sapphire

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Native Son by Richard Wright

The Beauty that Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

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This list featuring the books of 100 wonderful Black authors, illustrators, and poets is meant to help introduce readers to some of the many African American creators who are celebrated in the field of children's literature and tell important truths and stories that captivate kids.

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Colonialism, Slavery, and Modern Inequality

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Learn why slavery and colonialism are the foundations of modern inequality. Learn about the brutality and impacts of European colonialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

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The March on Washington: Four teacher resources

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A collection of five resources to examine the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Movement

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Here are titles for the classroom and teacher background reading on the Selma freedom struggle.

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Civil Rights Movement: Timeline, Key Events & Leaders | HISTORY

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The civil rights movement was a struggle for justice and equality for African Americans that took place mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its leaders were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and many others.

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The nineteenth century was a formative period in African-American literary and cultural history. Prior to the Civil War, the majority of black Americans living in the United States were held in bondage. Law and practice forbade teaching blacks from learning to read or write. Even after the war, many of the impediments to learning and literary productivity remained. Nevertheless, black men and women of the nineteenth century learned to both read and write. Moreover, more African-Americans than we yet realize turned their observations, feelings, social viewpoints, and creative impulses into published works. In time, this nineteenth-century printed record included poetry, short stories, histories, narratives, novels, autobiographies, social criticism, and theology, as well as economic and philosophical treatises. Unfortunately, much of this body of literature remained, until very recently, relatively inaccessible to twentieth-century scholars, teachers, creative artists, and others interested in black life. Prior to the late 1960s, most Americans (black as well as white) had never heard of these nineteenth-century authors, much less read their works.

The civil rights and black power movements created unprecedented interest in the thought, behavior, and achievements of black people. Publishers responded by revising traditional texts, introducing the American public to a generation of new African-American writers, publishing a variety of thematic anthologies, and reprinting a plethora of "classic texts" in African-American history, literature, and art. The reprints usually appeared as individual titles or in a series of bound volumes or microform formats.

The Schomburg Center, which has had a long history of supporting publishing projects on the history and culture of Africans in the diaspora, became an active participant in many of the reprint revivals of the 1960s. Since hard copies of original printed works were the preferred formats for producing facsimile reproductions, publishers frequently turned to the Schomburg Center for copies of these original titles. In addition to providing such materials, Schomburg Center staff members offered advice and consultation, wrote introductions, and occasionally entered into formal co-publishing arrangements in some projects.

Most of the nineteenth-century titles reprinted during the 1960s and 1970s, however, were by and about black men. A few black women were included in the longer series, but works by lesser-known black women were generally overlooked. The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest on writing by and about black women. In response to this interest, the Schomburg Center, in collaboration with Dr. Henry Louis Gates and Oxford University Press, published the thirty-volume Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers in 1988. This collection is now out of print, but there is a continuing need to make works by 19 th-century black women writers available to scholars, students and the general public alike. They constitute the foundations of the African American and African American women's literary traditions, containing as they do, the first book of poetry by an African American ( Poems on Various Subjects, Religions and Moral by Phillis Wheatly (1773); the first book of essays by an African American, Essays by Ann Plato (1841); and the first novel published by a black person in the United States, Our Nig by Harriet Wilson (1859).

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century includes a digital collection of 42 published works by 19 th- century black women writers. This guide provides access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920. The Schomburg Center is pleased to make this historic resource available to the public.

[6/9/98]

Edited by Serena Torres

8/18/20

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LibGuides: African American Women Writers of the 19th Century: Home

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The nineteenth century was a formative period in African-American literary and cultural history. Prior to the Civil War, the majority of black Americans living in the United States were held in bondage. Law and practice forbade teaching blacks from learning to read or write.

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Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List for Adults

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Explore essential titles selected by the Schomburg Center as it marks 95 years of collecting and preserving Black history, arts, and culture. Available on SimplyE and from the Schomburg Shop.

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B&N-Black History Month Reading List 2025

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B&N-Black History Month Reading List 2025

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School Library Journal-Black History Booklist

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School Library Journal-Black History Booklist

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28 Nonfiction Gems Celebrating Black History

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These informational works for kids of all ages shine a light on the many contributions Black icons, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Serena Williams, and Malcolm X, and more, have made on American culture.

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As the national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, it is my honor to bring greetings on behalf of ASALH during Black History Month. Each year the question is asked: Why does Black History Month occur in February? The relevance of February goes back to 1926, when ASALH's founder Dr. Carter G. Woodson first established "Negro History Week" during the second week of February. And why that week? Because it encompasses the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass-both men being great American symbols of freedom. However, Woodson never confined Negro History to a week. His life's work and the mission of ASALH since its founding in 1915 represent a living testimony to the year-round and year-after-year study of African American history .

The genius of Dr. Woodson could be seen in his prolific scholarship and in his mentorship of younger scholars. His genius could also be seen in innovative popular programming, such as Negro History Week, for African Americans of all ages and all walks of life. The week provided a special time for us to collectively celebrate our racial pride as well as collectively assess white America's commitment to its professed ideals of freedom. Black teachers in segregated public elementary and secondary schools engaged their students in an array of festivities-plays, pageants, reciting of speeches, essay contests, concerts, and other events. At the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, in 2016, the late Congressman John Lewis shared fond memories of his boyhood school experiences during Negro History Week in rural Alabama. Negro History Week included yet another tradition-an annual fundraising banquet attended by ASALH's adult members, who listened to inspiring speeches on the role of knowledge in the ongoing struggle for racial equality. It is no wonder that the NAACP conferred its highest medal, the Spingarn Medal, on Carter G. Woodson in 1926 after he launched Negro History Week that very same year. Today in the twenty-first century, ASALH remains faithful to Woodson's legacy of excellent scholarship and innovative programming.

We also recognize that d uring the mid-1960s, and especially when college students demanded courses on African Americans and led protests demanding Black Studies Departments, there were calls for extending Negro History week into a monthlong celebration from such groups as the Pan-American/Pan-African Association in Washington DC and students at Kent State University in Ohio, and from local communities throughout America. ASALH, however, sought recognition from the federal government, in the belief that it was important for our nation to set aside the month of February in official observance of African Americans' contributions to the history of the United States and world. The first official observance came in February 1976, from President Gerald Ford whose words established Black History Month in eloquent homage to Woodson and ASALH. He proclaimed: "IN THE Bicentennial year of our Independence, we can review with admiration the impressive contributions of black Americans to our national life....[T]o help highlight these achievements, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. We are grateful to him today for his initiative, and we are richer for the work of his organization."

Ten years later in 1986, which was also the first year of the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday, the U.S. Congress, in a joint resolution of the House and Senate, designated the month of February as "National Black History Month." The resolution authorized and requested President Ronald Reagan to issue a proclamation in observance. In 1986, the Presidential Proclamation 5443 noted that "the foremost purpose of Black History Month is to make all Americans aware of this struggle for freedom and equal opportunity."

Thus, let us think of Black History Month the way our nation honors its greatest moments and greatest people. Let us appreciate Black History Month in a similar way-as when our government sets aside a month or day, thereby giving it a special meaning for all Americans. No one should think that Black History is confined to the month of February, when evidence to the contrary appears everywhere and in every month. Thanks to the pioneering work of Woodson and ASALH, information on the contributions of persons of African descent to our nation and world is currently taught in universities and in many K-12 schools. Black History is featured in television documentaries and in local and national museums. It is conveyed through literature, the visual arts, and music. The great lives and material culture of Black History can be seen in national park sites and in the preservation of historic homes, buildings, and even cemeteries. Black History Month is not a token. It is a special tribute-a time of acknowledgement, of reflection, and inspiration-that comes to life in real and ongoing activities throughout the year, just as the work of ASALH has for 106 years steadily asserted both racial pride and the centrality of race and the black experience to the American narrative and heritage.

The history of the United States is certainly taught and conveyed all year long, but its greatest symbolic celebration occurs on one-day, the Fourth of July. Black History Month, too, is a powerful symbolic celebration. And symbols always stand for something bigger-in our case, the important role of Black History in pursuit of racial justice and equality. We invite you to partake of ASALH's virtual Black History Month Festival. For information, see https://asalh.org/festival/schedule-of-events/ . We'll be talking a lot about the Black History Theme for 2021-The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. See my announcement of the 2021 theme on asalh.org. ASALH will explore The Black Family from a multiplicity of perspectives, HBCU vocal performances, and enlightening discussions during the festival and, to be sure, All Year Long!
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
2021 ASALH National President

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As the national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, it is my honor to bring greetings on behalf of ASALH during Black History Month. Each year the question is asked: Why does Black History Month occur in February?

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A provocative one-act play that explores themes of race, identity, and societal expectations through an encounter between an educated young Black man and a flirtatious white woman on a New York subway. It is packaged here with another Baraka play, The Slave.

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This specially curated list of 100 books celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The titles are personal recommendations from some of today's most celebrated Black writers, artists, and luminaries and curated by the Schomburg Center's reference division.