Observed annually in the month of February, Black History Month celebrates and honors the achievements and contributions made by African Americans to the cultural, economic, spiritual, and political development of the United States. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, proposed the establishment of “Negro History Week” in February 1926. The week would honor the history and contributions of African Americans to American life. Dr. Woodson chose the second week in February because it coincides with the birthdays of two men of importance to the African American community: Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). In the early 1970s Negro History Week became Black History Week, and in 1976 was expanded to a month-long observance.
Celebrate Black History Month locally by attending events in our area and by checking out the Armacost Library's collections.
Events
Charles Holt in Black Boy, a one-man play. Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at the Orton Center, 7:30PM.
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Byron Hurt. Monday, February 18 at the Orton Center, 7:00PM.
The San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation's Black History Parade, Expo and Ball. Saturday, February 2, 2008.
Books
Fiction
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.
Jones, Edward P. The Known World. New York: Amistad, 2003.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Knopf, 1973.
Mosley, Walter. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. New York: Washington Square Press, 1998.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.
Non-Fiction
Appiah, Kwame Anthony and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Baraka, Amiri. Black Music. New York: W. Morrow, 1967.
Conrad, Cecilia. African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
Hooks, Bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
DVDs and Videos
BaadAsssss Cinema (2002)
Color Adjustment (2004)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Malcolm X (1992)
Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2002)
Image titled "Black Flappers" posted by discoverblackheritage at Flickr
