LibGuides: Library Spotlight: Black History Month

Introduction

Beginning as the founding of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History by Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland in 1915 and culminating in President Gerald Ford's declaring it to be a national observance in 1976, February is Black History Month.

The Lewis Library welcomes you to explore the print and digital resources on this page and the books on the display shelf near the reference desk, inviting you to walk in the footsteps of the struggles and triumphs of African American individuals, to reflect upon voices discussing race & diversity to achieve antiracist victories, and to celebrate and commemorate the stories of the African American experience.

All of the print books on this page are on the display shelf accompanying other reads and all materials on the display shelf can be checked out at the circulation desk on the 2nd floor of the Lewis library.

History of the African American Experience

Creating Black Americans by Nell Irvin Painter
Call Number: E185 .P15 2006

An eminent historian blends a narrative based on the latest research with an array of artwork by African American artists, which add a new depth to our understanding of black history. The book offers a history stretching from life in Africa before slavery to today's hip-hop culture.
Life upon These Shores by Henry Louis Gates
Call Number: E185 .G27 2011

Tracing African American history from the arrival of the conquistadors to Barack Obama, this book includes more than eight hundred images that focus on the defining events, debates, controversies, and achievements of black history.
Defining Moments in Black History by Dick Gregory
Call Number: E185 .G759 2017

This book examines key events in black history, from the beginnings of the slave trade in Africa and the Middle Passage to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Lives Matter movement and offers insightful commentary on the intricate history of the African American people.
The Bone and Sinew of the Land by Anna-Lisa Cox
Call Number: E185.925 .C64 2018

This book tells about the long-hidden stories of America's black pioneers, the frontier they settled, showing the lost history of the nation's first Great Migration and showing how these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights

A More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis
Call Number: E185.61 .T44 2018

This book challenges a historically held myth about the Civil Rights Movement, showing the immense barriers and repression activists faced, and emphasizing the richness of our civil rights legacy.
The King Years by Taylor Branch
Call Number: E185.61 .B7913 2013

Essential moments of the Civil Rights Movement are set in historical context presenting selections on race and democracy, violence and nonviolence, and everyday actors of the movement.
Civil Rights Literature Past and Present by Christopher A. Varlack (Editor)
Call Number: PS228.C55 C58 2017

This book not only examines key works of the African-American civil rights debate past and present, it explores issues of gender equality and sexual orientation integral to civil rights studies.
Driving While Black by Gretchen Sorin
Call Number: E185.61 .S667 2020

This book shows the importance of the car for African Americans and demonstrates how the automobile and black travel guides (like the famous Green Book) encouraged a new way of paving a road to assist the Civil Rights Movement.

African American Lives Series

From travesties of justice to the pursuit of the most intimate truths, this program focuses on participants' ancestors in the early 20th century.

“African-American Lives 2: The Road Home.” Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 2008, https://niagaracc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103836&xtid=40956

To access the Films on Demand page to the whole series, click African American Lives 2

Tackling Racism, Discussing Race

The Science of Diversity by Mona Sue Weissmark
Call Number: HM1271 .W4545 2020

This book excavates the theories, principles, and paradigms that illuminate our understanding of the issues surrounding human diversity, social equality, and justice.
How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon; Kenrya Rankin
Call Number: E185.61 .H845 2019

This celebration of Black resistance, across different artforms, offers a blueprint for the fight for justice and for fighting white supremacy.
Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard
Call Number: E185.97.B337 A3 2019

These essays on race explore complexities and paradoxes of growing up black in the South to the author's major life events, to teaching at a white college and living in New England.
Explorations in Diversity by Sharon K. Anderson (Editor); Valerie A. Middleton (Editor)
Call Number: LC205 .A52 2018

This book aims to open minds, hearts, and mouths in ways that push each of us toward a better understanding of our own privileged statuses so that we can use who we are, what we say, and what we do to make our society more accepting and inclusive of all our diverse representations.
Backlash by George Yancy
Call Number: E185.61 .Y36 2018

When the author wrote an op-ed asking white Americans to confront the ways racism benefits them, he was unprepared for the racist response. This book explores why the op-ed created so much rage and calls for a new empathy for the African American experience.
We Gon' Be Alright: notes on race and resegregation by Jeff Chang
Call Number: E184.A1 C4424 2016

Explores the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country, looks at the rise and fall of "diversity" and argues that the undoing of resegregation is key to achieving racial justice and cultural equity.
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
Call Number: E185.615 .F526 2016

The author takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race as a jumping off point for this collection of essays and poems about race.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Call Number: E185.625.T38 1997

Any racially mixed high school will show Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? The author argues that straight talk about our racial identities is key and shows ways to work against racism to become part of the solution.

Ebooks

Caste: the origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
From the library's database, EBSCOhost ebook collection.
The author gives a portrait of how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
The Post-Racial Mystique by Catherine Squires
From the library's Ebook Central database. Despite claims that we now live in a post-racial America, race and racism abound. This book explores how a variety of media outlets debate, define, and deploy the term "post-racial."
Black Power by Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar
From the library's database EBSCOhost ebook collection. Explores the impact of the Black Power movement, showing how a black freedom movement in which desegregation through nonviolence and black nationalism marched side by side.

African American History on the Web

African American History Month
Explore the wealth of resources created by different government agencies including the National Archives and Park Service. Explore the Exhibits and Collections link to get to the National Archives.

Selected African American Authors

Search for these authors and many more in the library catalog.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Maya Angelou
James Baldwin
Gwendolyn Brooks
Octavia E. Butler
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Marlon James
Terry McMillan
Toni Morrison
Alice Walker
Colson Whitehead

Niagara County Community College. Henrietta G. Lewis Library. 3111 Saunders Settlement Rd., Sanborn, NY 14132 | 716-614-6786