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Celebrating Black History Month
Black History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements and history of African Americans. The library has put together this guide to showcase just a few of the many resources available both in the library and online.
"The papers of Rosa Parks (1913-2005) span the years 1866-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 2000. The collection, which contains approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism on behalf of civil rights for African Americans." - from The Library of Congress
Events and Studies in U.S. History
Biographies, Autobiographies, Memoirs
Fiction, Poetry and Folktales
Arts and Entertainment
Children's Books
Music
Playlist for Black History Month
A mix of audio and video
Playlists from Naxos Music Library
A great selection of classical, jazz, and folk music by Black composers. Use the buttons in the player to start and control the music.
You may be prompted to sign in with your R-MC credentials depending on your location and network connection.
- Naxos Black Composers, Pt. 1
Four hours of music from the Naxos Music Library, including Ellington, Joplin, Dett, and many more. - Naxos Black Composers, Pt. 2
Three more hours from the Naxos Music Library, including Johnson, Walker, Baker, and more!
Maya Angelou "Still I Rise"
Film clip available to R-MC community through sign-on to R-MC network.
Black History in Film
From Porgy and Bess
- Black Film Archive This link opens in a new windowBlack Film Archive celebrates the rich, abundant history of Black cinema. We are an evolving archive dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made from 1915 to 1979 about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context.
Academic Video Online provides access to hundreds of films that document Black History. Be sure to sign in with your Randolph-Macon credentials to view films in their entirety.
- Black History - AVON
Film biographies, interviews, histories, important events, and movements, find them all at Academic Videos Online. - The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is an award-winning six-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series written and presented by Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It aired for the first time in the fall of 2013. - John Lewis: Good Trouble
An intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism. After Lewis petitioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, King sent “the boy from Troy” a round trip bus ticket to meet with him. From that meeting onward, Lewis became one of King’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides that left him bloodied or jailed, and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble” until his passing on July 17, 2020.
Links
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2 (Readex) This link opens in a new windowFull text of over 350 African American newspapers published throughout the U.S. from 1827-1998, documenting the African American experience through coverage of African American history, culture, and daily life.
- African American Newspapers in the South, 1870-1926 This link opens in a new windowIncludes newspapers published in the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia that were published by and for the African American community.
- African American Newspapers (Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new windowIncludes a dozen important African American newspapers. Dates range from 1827-1919. For a more comprehensive collection with over 350 papers, see: African American Newspapers, Series 1 &2 (Readex)
- African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new windowPrimary source materials on African-Americans during the Jim Crow era in American history.
- African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new windowPrimary source materials on African-Americans during the Reconstruction era in American history.
- African American Heritage - NARALearn more through records, photographs, writings, and social media postings.
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
Exhibits and online collections at your fingertips. - African American History MonthA compilation of federal government agencies that brings together their collections of African American resources.
- Virginia Untold - The African American Narrative"Providing users with access to an expanded collection of resources for researching African American history in Virginia.'
Participate
Contribute!
Take part in helping to preserve and make African American resources more widely available by transcribing documents from the past.
- National Archives and Records Adminstration
"The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the African American experience. Explore our records documenting African American History and help transcribe these records to make them more searchable and discoverable in the Catalog." - Smithsonian Institution Records"The African American story is central to our nation’s history. Collections documenting the contributions of African Americans in countless fields, along with the struggles and achievements inherent to their stories, can be found in the records of every Smithsonian museum. Help us make these collections more accessible through transcription."
- Library of Virginia - Virginia Untold
"The names of millions of African Americans--free and enslaved--who lived, worked, worshiped, loved, and died in Virginia, are buried deep in the archival records and manuscript collections housed at the Library of Virginia. Virginia Untold: African American Narrative seeks to find these long silent voices. Whether contained in local court and state government records, private papers and business records, or newspapers and journals from the time, the untold narrative of a people is waiting to be discovered."