McGraw-Page Library: Black History Month: Home

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 in the library and online.

African Americans and Africa by Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780300244915
Publication Date: 2019-06-17
An introduction to the complex relationship between African Americans and the African continent What is an "African American" and how does this identity relate to the African continent? Rising immigration levels, globalization, and the United States' first African American president have all sparked new dialogue around the question. This book provides an introduction to the relationship between African Americans and Africa from the era of slavery to the present, mapping several overlapping diasporas. The diversity of African American identities through relationships with region, ethnicity, slavery, and immigration are all examined to investigate questions fundamental to the study of African American history and culture.

Featured collection:

"The William A. Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs provides almost 350 images showing African Americans and related military and social history. The Civil War era is the primary time period covered, with scattered examples through 1945. Most of the images are photographs, including 270 cartes de visite." - from The Library of Congress

Citation: Forshew, F, photographer. Three-quarter-length portrait of an African American woman facing front / F. Forshew, Hudson, N.Y. , None. [Between 1870 and 1880] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010647831/.

Events and Studies in U.S. History

Biographies, Autobiographies, Memoirs

Cover Art Autobiography of W. E. B. du Bois

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 window
Black 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 and Films on Demand provide 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.
Making Black America
This four-hour series, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people-beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” Gates takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcases Black people’s ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.
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

A Concise Guide to African-American Theatre
Offers a detailed analysis of African American theatre in an essay, followed by a list of references, written by Khalid Y. Long. Includes guidance on other useful related resources on Digital Theatre+ such as information on key productions, essays, and interviews.

African American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2 (Readex) This link opens in a new window
Full 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 window
Includes 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 window
Includes 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 window
Primary 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 window
Primary source materials on African-Americans during the Reconstruction era in American history.

African American Heritage - NARA
Learn 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 Month
A 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.

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: Deeds of Emancipation and Manumission
"Deeds of emancipation and manumission record an enslavers’ intent to emancipate enslaved people from bondage. They include the name of the enslaver, the name of the enslaved person to be freed, the date of anticipated freedom, the date the manumission was proved or certified, and, sometimes a reason why the enslaver decided to emancipate the enslaved person. In a deed of manumission, an enslaver directly freed an enslaved person by manumission."
Library of Virginia - Virginia Untold: Free Registers (indexing)
"In 1793, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring that all free Black people “be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the town clerk, which shall specify age, name, color, status and by whom, and in what court emancipated.” The process was extended to localities in 1803. In 1834, the General Assembly added a requirement that each person be specified by marks or scars and the instrument of emancipation, whether by deed or will, be recorded. Registration language and process varied across the localities, thus the information in each register may differ, but generally speaking these registers document both free born and formerly enslaved people throughout Virginia."