Honor the Legacy

Celebrate the Achievements of African Americans
Black History Month Logo


DC Public Library pays tribute to the achievements of African Americans through a wide range of programs including music, films, theatre, book discussions and lectures. Enjoy programs across the public library system Feb. 1-28, 2013.

Events | Online Resources | Good Reads for Youth | Good Reads for Adults | Bibliography


Events

Click here to view all programs.


Online Resources

Your Library has a wealth of online resources that can help enrich your African-American history, life and culture, from Colonial times and slavery, to the Civil War, to the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement. It all can be found in Black Studies Online Research

Historic Black Newspapers Delve into black history with more than 500 scholarly articles and more than 4,000 slave narratives in The African American Experience.
You can read articles from four Historic Black Newspapers:
  • Atlanta Daily World
  • The Baltimore Afro-American
  • Chicago Defender
  • New York Amsterdam News

Information dates back to the late 1800s.

Oxford African American Studies Center The African American Studies Center contains over 5,000 biographies, more than 7,500 articles, and hundreds of maps, documents, images, timelines, websites and charts and tables of African-American life, history and culture.
The Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more.

 

Good Reads


For Youth

Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March Jazz Age Josephine Fire in the Streets The Silence of Our Friends
Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!
By Wynton Marsalis
JUV E Marsalis
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
By Cynthia Levinson
JUV 323.11 Levinson
Jazz Age Josephine
By Jonah Winter
JUV 92 Baker
Fire in the Streets
By Kekla Magoon
YA Magoon
The Silence of Our Friends
By Mark Long
G. N. Fiction Long


The librarians at Deanwood Library have also created a reading list for children and teens with books on the civil rights movement.

For Adults 

And Bid Him Sing: Biography of Countee Cullen The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama Inspiration: Profile of Black Women Changing Our World It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader
And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen
by Charles Molesworth
The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama
by Elijah Wald
 
Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing our World
by Crystal McCrary
It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
by Colin Powell
The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader
by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
 
The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement The Longest Fight Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama's Post-Racial America This is the Day: The March on Washington  
The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement
by Taylor Branch
The Longest Fight: In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing's First African American Champion
by William Gildea
 
Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama's Post-Racial America
by David Ikard
 
This is the Day: The March on Washington
by Leonard Freed
 
 


Want more recommendations? Check out these selected works related to Black History Month.