Ask The Global Field: Celebrating Black History Month with our network, Pt. 2
The Global Field answers pressing questions from our grantees, addressing their in-the-field challenges. We guide and offer support to our partners and stakeholders. We further help navigate common community organizational issues.
If you have a question to ask the Global Field, contact us and you could see your questions posted in a future issue!
Your Question:
Our team is looking for significant ways to celebrate and share Black History Month with our network.
Our Response:
Celebrating Black History to the fullest is understood to be a must. This dedicated time marks a special moment in which historical lessons and events focus on the greatness of the African-American communities of the U.S. Every employee on your team, and person in your network, will benefit when informed about the achievements of black communities. Taking steps to celebrate throughout the month will signal to your network the understanding you have that all the communities you serve need to know that they are appreciated, seen, cared about, listened to, and represented.
What is Black History Month?
Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, originally grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
In September 1915, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent. In the decades that followed, mayors of cities across the U.S. began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing “Negro History Week.” By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil rights movement and a growing awareness of Black identity, “Negro History Week” evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses.
The Black History Month 2023 theme, “Black Resistance,” explores how “African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings,” since the nation’s earliest days.
Ways To Celebrate Black History Month
Visit a Black or African American history museum and encourage your network to visit Black or African American history sites in their communities
Almost every state in the U.S. has a Black history museum or an African American heritage site. The country’s first and oldest is the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, Virginia. Like many other museums, it offers a virtual tour and online exhibits. African-American heritage sites include historic parks and other significant locations and monuments in Black history.
If there is no museum or heritage site near you, keep an eye out for the Black History Mobile Museum, which traverses the country all month and through the summer. Throughout February you can find the mobile museum in several states, starting in New Jersey on February 1 and making its way through 12 other states.
Dive deeper into Black history with online resources
You can find remarkable Black history collections on government, educational, and media sites. One of the best is BlackPast, which hosts a large collection of primary documents from African American history, dating back to 1724.
The National Archives also hosts a large collection of records, photos, news articles and videos documenting Black heritage in America. The expansive National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Black History Month collection is likewise full of unique articles, videos, and learning materials.
The New York Times’ 1619 Project tracks the history of Black Americans from the first arrival of kidnapped and enslaved people in Virginia. The Pulitzer Center hosts the full issue of The 1619 Project on its1619 Education site.
Watch Black history documentaries, movies, and virtual events
PBS offers several free video documentary collections, which include smaller chunks of Black history for all ages. The collections include subjects like the Freedom Riders, the 1963 March on Washington and the Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History lists numerous book talks, presentations, and workshops throughout the month on their Black History Month Virtual Festival Schedule.
Start A Book Club
Reading has been proven again and again to make people more empathetic. Books are at least a partial cure for ignorance. Sometimes people act with a lack of sensitivity, due purely to not knowing any better. Select a variety of books by black authors that focus on the challenges and struggles that black women and men have faced throughout history — as well as their amazing accomplishments and triumphs.
It can be easier to understand and digest real-world issues through the lens of fiction and non-fiction because we view them from a less defensive and biased perspective. Starting a book club is a solid way to build up empathy in the workplace towards black colleagues and to learn more about African-American history.
Distribute Black History Month Digital Gifts
As a strategy to engage with your distributed team this February, a digital gift could be the answer. Each recipient will have their choice of redeeming their reward as a charitable donation towards a not-for-profit organization in support of the Black community, or as a digital gift card.
Recipients can choose to donate the amount in their name to one of the following charitable organizations:
- Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM)
- Black Health Matters
- Black Trans Advocacy Coalition
- Black Women’s Health Alliance
- Equal Justice Initiative
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
With a charitable donation, you and your colleagues can play a small part in a good cause while celebrating Black History Month in the process.
Learn about Black music history by listening online
From spirituals and blues to the rise of jazz, R&B and hip hop, Black music has been entwined with American culture for centuries.
There are many ways to learn about and experience the power of Black American music online. One of the most extensive and free resources is the Black Music History Library, created by Jenzia Burgos. The compendium includes an array of Black music sources, with links to music samples, full recordings and interviews, as well as books and articles.
Another remarkable Black music website is the #312 Soul project. Originally launched as a month-long series on Chicago’s Black music from 1955 to 1990, the site publishes original stories from Chicago residents about their personal experiences creating and enjoying Black music.