Black History Month

                                         

This February, the DC Public Library celebrates the culture and accomplishments of the Black Family. The definition of family, like Black life and culture itself, is multifaceted. Whether at home, in the office, or the basketball court, the family we make, build or choose provides comfort, encouragement and inspiration for African Americans to thrive, no matter the obstacle. The Black family makes history makers of us all.

This month, library programming will highlight history makers in literature who’ve inspired us, launch author talks with legends we celebrate, honor D.C.’s own in music and photography, and provide book recommendations for readers of all ages. 
 
Subscribe to the DC Public Library’s YouTube and Facebook pages to receive alerts during Black History Month.

Events

Attend author talks, black history trivia, story time with the family and more. Find the featured events below and more in the calendar.

FEATURED EVENTS

Who Are Your People? Toni Morrison's Portrayal of the Black Family
Thursday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m.
Join Dr. Michele Simms-Burton, writer and founding member of the Toni Morrison Society, for a presentation examining how Morrison conceives the black family in her work.

Black History Always with "The Undefeated"
Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 4 p.m.
 DC teens will talk with Soraya Nadia McDonald, Culture Editor of The Undefeated and Ariel Atkins, Guard of the Washington Mystics about claiming your voice, taking risks, and becoming the change they want to see in the world.

Witness to History: Les Payne and the Search for Malcolm X
Thursday, Feb. 25 at 4 p.m.
Les Payne, The late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for Newsday made it his life’s work to uncover the man behind the legendary Black Muslim minister and activist. Payne’s daughter Tamara joins his friends and colleagues to discuss the National Book Award winning biography, the author and the responsibility of Black journalists like Payne to chronicle history as it is.

Washington, DC: City of Interest, City of Change
Ongoing
A virtual photographic exhibition and discussion series.
 

Good Reads

Adults Teens Children

Check out these collections of eBooks and Audiobooks on OverDrive

• Still Here: A Black Futures Month Book List 
• Celebrating Black History Month – Nonfiction Titles 
• Celebrating Black History Month – Fiction Titles  
• Celebrating Black History Month – Biographies & Autobiographies 
• Celebrating Black History Month (Young Adult Titles) 
• Black Joy (Picture Books & Chapter Books)

Good Films

Search the titles below and stream the films for free on Kanopy using your library card number.
 

The Last Black Man in San Francisco	Rag Tag	Mumia: Long Distance Revolution	Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Did You Know?

Your library has a wealth of online resources that can help enrich your understanding of Black History Month. It all can be found in the DC Public Library databases.

	You can search your family and local history through Ancestry Library Edition & HeritageQuest.	Ancestry Library Edition HeritageQuest
	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.	Historic Black Newspapers
	Nineteenth-Century U.S. Newspapers provides an as-it-happened window on events, culture, and daily life in nineteenth-century America. Includes titles from Washington D.C.	Nineteenth Century Newspapers
	African American Newspapers, including Washington DC resources, emphasizing eyewitness accounts of events during the 19th century.	Accessible Archives
	The Oxford 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.	Oxford African American Studies Center
	The African American Experience contains 500 full-text reference and scholarly articles and over 4,000 slave narratives. Includes primary documents, maps and images, lesson plans, searchable timelines and web links.	African American Experience
	Access primary sources related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Congress: Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories  Fight For Racial Justice And The Civil Rights Congress Federal Surveillance of African Americans 1920-1984	Gale Primary Sources
	The African American Music Reference contains over 3000 essays and images on blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel and other forms of African American musical expression.	African American Music Reference

Good Listens

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches on Freegal 
• Black History Month music playlist on Freegal

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