February marks Black History Month, a month-long observance in the United States and Canada that recognizes the significant contributions of African-Americans to American history, as well as the historical legacies of the African diaspora. We hope you’ll find the stories below, and the scholarship they include in full, a valuable resource for classroom or leisure reading.
Carter G. Woodson, The Father of Black History Month
February 12, 2015
The origins of Black History Month date back to 1926, when a historian named Carter G. Woodson spearheaded “Negro History Week.”
Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights
October 16, 2019
Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
The 1910 Report That Disadvantaged Minority Doctors
May 3, 2019
A century ago, the Flexner Report led to the closure of 75% of U.S. medical schools. It still explains a lot about today’s unequal access to healthcare.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, “The Black Swan”
May 6, 2019
Born into slavery, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield broke barriers with every note she sang.
The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom
July 10, 2020
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
How St. Louis Domestic Workers Fought Exploitation
January 26, 2021
Without many legal protections under the New Deal, Black women organized through the local Urban League.
The Alpha Suffrage Club and Black Women’s Fight for the Vote
September 8, 2020
Black women's experiences in the suffrage movement show that the Nineteenth Amendment marked one event in the fight for the vote, not an endpoint.
How Black Communities Built Their Own Schools
August 4, 2020
Rosenwald schools, named for a philanthropist, were funded mostly by Black people of the segregated South.
The New Negro and the Dawn of the Harlem Renaissance
January 25, 2021
In 1925, an anthology of Black creative work heralded the arrival of a movement that had been years in the making.
Who Were the Montford Point Marines?
June 26, 2019
The first African-American recruits in the Marine Corps trained at Montford Point, eventually ending the military’s longstanding policy of racial segregation.
In the McCarthy Era, to Be Black Was to Be Red
November 13, 2019
The Marxist sympathies of Black radical leaders like Paul Robeson, Alice Childress, and Lorraine Hansberry made them targets for the FBI.
Searching for Black Queer History in Sensational Newspapers
March 14, 2019
Sometimes finding the stories of marginalized populations demands reading between the lines.
The Mob Violence of the Red Summer
May 14, 2019
In 1919, a brutal outburst of mob violence was directed against African Americans across the United States. White, uniformed servicemen led the charge.
Tuskegee University’s Hidden Audio Collections
February 21, 2020
The archives of the historically black Tuskegee University recently released recordings from 1957 to 1971, with a number by powerful civil rights leaders.
We’ll be adding more stories related to Black History Month throughout February.
