Black History Month

In celebration of Black History Month and African American History as a whole, explore our resources on African American history and culture including famous African Americans From Philadelphia, Poets and Poetry, Speculative Fiction, Nonfiction, Books for Early Readers, The Harlem Renaissance, Tuskegee Airmen, Scientists and Inventors, Politics, Black Colleges and Universities, and Black History Month events throughout Philadelphia area.

Links

Black Inventors A to Z
About.com's biographical guide to African American inventors also contains links to additional content including African American patent holders and a trivia quiz.
Top Ten African American Inventors
A brief slideshow from Scholastic Magazine for grades 3-4.
"America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us" by Adam Serwer | Atlantic (May 8, 2020)
The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying. The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.
African American History
Major Speeches: Speeches from outstanding African American orators.
African American History: Major Speeches
Speeches from outstanding African American orators
African American Museum in Philadelphia
Exhibitions, collections, educational programs, and more. This is the official web site of the museum, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the culture of African Americans in Philadelphia and beyond.
African American Senators
Photos and short biographies of African Americans senators, starting with Hiram Revels of Mississippi in 1870, the first African American U.S.senator.
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in University City
Black History Month Events @ Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in University City
Behind The Veil - Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
A selection of 100 recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.
Bethune-Cookman College
Noted educator Mary McLeod Bethune founded what later became known as Bethune-Cookman College in 1904.
Black Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database
This database serves as a starting point for relatives or researchers as they begin to piece together individual experiences of black soldiers and sailors in the Civil War.
Black Dispatches
African American Contributions to Union Intelligence During the Civil War.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Located just outside of Philadelphia and founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is the oldest of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in America.
Desegregation of the Armed Forces
A Collection of Documents detailing President Truman's decision to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces.
Hampton University
Located in southeastern Virginia, Hampton University offers a broad range of technical, liberal arts, pre-professional, professional, and graduate degree programs.
Howard University
This HBCU is located in Washington, D.C.
Lincoln University
Lincoln University is located in southern Chester County, about 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Famous alumni include Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall.
Morehouse College
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., filmmaker Shelton "Spike" Lee, and Olympic Gold Medalist Edwin Moses are among the renowned alumni of Atlanta, Georgia's Morehouse College.
NAACP’s Criminal Justice Fact Sheet
Includes information on Incarceration Trends in America, Racial Disparities in Incarceration, Drug Sentencing Disparities, Effects of Incarceration, and Fair Chance Hiring.
National Constitution Center
Daily events and activities including Decoding the Document, a workshop that examines the museum’s own rare copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, and the interactive Breaking Barriers show, spotlighting the lives of Thurgood Marshall, Bessie Coleman, Jackie Robinson and other barrier-breaking African-Americans.
Notable African Americans
Short biographies of prominent African Americans from all walks of life.
Notable African-American Government Officials
Important African American Government Officials
PBS’s Teaching Your Child About Black History
"Instead of shying away from hard truths, parents can explain that a long time ago, people were separated by the color of their skin. Some people did not think that was fair, and men and women of all races united to make a change. This is a straight-forward example that teaches empathy, cooperation, and the commonality of a shared goal. It is also a way to teach children how to connect their personal experiences with the larger world." - Nefertiti Austin
Physicists of the African Diaspora
Short biographies of African American scientists prominent in physics, chemistry, engineering and mathematics.
Project Ready’s Allies and Antiracism
A free online professional development curriculum by UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, that helps to teach allyship.
Talking About Race
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.
The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar Nelson – I Am An American!
The Rosenbach’s exhibition, “I Am an American!” The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, explores these questions through the lens of an under-studied local author, teacher, and advocate for social justice who changed American society—starting more than one hundred years ago.
The Combahee River Collective Statement
A collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking.
The Faces of Science
African Americans in the Sciences: This site contains profiles of African Americans who have contributed to science and engineering. Many profiles contain photographs of the scientist.
The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences
This site contains profiles of African Americans who have contributed to science and engineering. Many profiles contain photographs of the scientist.
The Philly Black History Syllabus: 13 Must-read Books to Understand Our City
Experts share what books spotlighting Philadelphia you should be reading during Black History Month.
Timeline of African American History
From the Library of Congress, a timeline of events from 1852-1925 put together to support a special digital collection entitled "African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection".

Alice Dunbar-Nelson by explore

Free Library resources in support of the Rosenbach's Digital Exhibition: "I Am an American!" The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Lyrics of sunshine and shadow : the tragic courtship and marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore : a history of love and violence among the African American elite cover

tracing arachne's web :myth and feminist fiction cover

give us each day :the diary of alice dunbar-nelson cover

War plays by women : an international anthology cover

Black like us : a century of lesbian, gay and bisexual African American fiction cover

View the full list

Biographies For Kids by explore

Read biographies of famous and historical African Americans.

A man for all seasons : the life of George Washington Carver cover

Baby Flo : Florence Mills lights up the stage cover

Black Jack : the ballad of Jack Johnson cover

Fort Mose : and the story of the man who built the first free black settlement in Colonial America cover

View the full list

The Black history of the White House cover

Barack Obama: The Making of an American President (14 items)

Learn more about the life and achievement of President Obama.

African American women of the Old West cover

African Americans Win the West (12 items)

Pioneering African Americans of the Old West.

African Americans in film and television cover

African Americans in the Cinema (9 items)

Lights, Camera, Action! Dig into the world of Black filmmakers, actors and actresses.

Memoirs and Reminiscences by African American Authors (14 items)

Autobiographical selections.

Award-Winning African American Authors (14 items)

Books by prize-winning writers.

A gentleman of color : the life of James Forten cover

African American Revolutionaries and Inventors from Philadelphia (6 items)

Inspiring stories and historical perspective of African American Revolutionaries and Inventors from Philadelphia through the years.

African American Quilts (8 items)

Discover the beauty of these treasures of American folk art.

African American holiday celebrations and traditions : celebrating with passion, style, and grace cover

African American Celebrations (11 items)

Explore the rich cultural traditions that are an integral part of the African American experience.

African American Books for Early Readers (20 items)

Books starring African Americans for Early Readers.

Electronic Resources

American State Papers, 1789-1838
The essential record of the first decade of the United States. Browse legislative and executive documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses and find information on the major events that shaped the Early Republic. *Chrome browser not supported.
Available To: All Free Library locations and online with your library card.

Related Tags
- African American
- Adults
- Teens
- History
America's Historical Imprints
Explore centuries of history through books, pamphlets, & other material on culture and daily life. Includes: American Broadsides and Ephemera and Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans & Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker. *Chrome browser not supported.
Available To: All Free Library locations and online with your library card.

Related Tags
- African American
- Literature
- Adults
- Teens
- History
Historical Newspapers - Black Newspapers
Primary source material from ten historic Black newspapers, including the Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, and the Cleveland Call and Post
Available To: All Free Library locations and online with your library card.

Related Tags
HistoryMakers Digital Archive
Explore the nation's largest African American video oral history collection. Access high-quality primary source content, with fully searchable transcripts, from thousands of people from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.
Available To: All Free Library locations and online with your library card.

Related Tags
Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001)
Full access to the oldest continuously published daily Black newspaper in the United States.
Available To: All Free Library locations and online with your library card.

Related Tags
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law
This HeinOnline collection brings together essential legal materials on slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world. It includes nearly 2,000 titles with every statute and case on slavery, and hundreds of historic texts and modern histories.
Available To: All Free Library locations.

Related Tags