AFRICANAFRICANAFRICAN‐‐‐AMERICAN AMERICAN AMERICAN 

HISTORY MONTH HISTORY MONTH HISTORY MONTH    

Each February, African‐American History Month—or Black History Month— honors the 

struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating 

obstacles — slavery, prejudice, poverty — as well as their contributions to the nation’s 

cultural and political life. 

Black History Month was the inspiration of Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and 

historian, who instituted Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of 

February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the 

abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 

 

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President 

Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too‐often 

neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our 

history.” 

The special theme of the year 2011 is African Americans and the Civil War 

William F. Pepper AN ACT OF STATE: The Execution of Martin Luther King Verso, 2008. 364.1524 PEP Barbara S. Glass AFRICAN AMERICAN DANCE: An Illustrated History McFarland & Co, 2007. 792.8089 GLA W. Sherman Rogers THE AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR: Then and Now Praeger, cop. 2010. 338.642 ROG Pierre Saint-Arnaud AFRICAN AMERICAN PIONEERS OF SOCIOLOGY: A Critical History University of Toronto Press, 2009. 301.092 SAI AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN HISTORY SINCE WORLD WAR II Ed. by Kenneth L. Kusmer and Joe W. Trotter. University of Chicago Press, 2009. 305.800973 AFR Eric Freedman and Stephen A. Jones AFRICAN AMERICANS IN CONGRESS: A Documentary History CQ Press, cop. 2008. 328.73 FRE Michael Eric Dyson APRIL 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America Basic Civitas Books, cop. 2008. 323.1196 DYS Taylor Branch AT CANAAN'S EDGE: America in the King Years, 1965-68 Simon & Schuster, 2006. 323.1196 BRA James Sidbury BECOMING AFRICAN IN AMERICA: Race and Nation in the Early Black Atlantic Oxford University Press, 2007. 973.0496 SID Bell Hooks BELONGING: A Culture of Place Routledge, 2008. 305.4889 HOO

BEYOND DOUGLASS: New Perspectives on Early African-American Literature Ed. by Michael J. Drexler and Ed White. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; 2008. 810.9896 BEY Mark A. Reid BLACK LENSES, BLACK VOICES: African American Film Now Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 791.4375 REI Howell S. Baum BROWN IN BALTIMORE: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism Cornell University Press, 2010. 379.2 BAU CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO MALCOLM X Ed. by Robert E. Terrill. Cambridge University Press, 2010. 973 CAM Philip Dray CAPITOL MEN: The Epic Story of Reconstruction through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008. 973.81 DRA Susan Neal Mayberry CAN'T I LOVE WHAT I CRITICIZE?: The Masculine and Morrison University of Georgia Press, 2007. 813.54 MAY Clarence Lusane COLIN POWELL AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Foreign Policy, Race, and the New American Century Praeger Publishers, 2006. 327.73 LUS Sharon L. Jones CRITICAL COMPANION TO ZORA NEALE HURSTON: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work Facts On File, 2009. 813.52 JON CULTURAL SITES OF CRITICAL INSIGHT: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and African American and Native American Women's Writings Ed. by Angela L. Cotten and Christa Davis Acampora. State University of New York

Selected bibliography Books published since 2005 

available at the American Resource Center 

Press, 2007. 810.9928 CUL Harvey G. Cohen DUKE ELLINGTON’S AMERICA University of Chicago Press, 2010. 781.65092 COH James W. Coleman FAITHFUL VISION: Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction Louisiana State University Press, 2006. 813.5093 COL James T. Patterson FREEDOM IS NOT ENOUGH: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle over Black Family Life : From LBJ to Obama New York : Basic Books, cop. 2010. 305.896 PAT Thomas F. Jackson FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 323.092 JAC Kermit E. Campbell GETTIN' OUR GROOVE ON: Rhetoric, Language, and Literacy for the Hip Hop Generation Wayne State University Press, cop. 2005. 427.0899 CAM Michael K. Honey GOING DOWN JERICHO ROAD: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign W.W. Norton & Co., 2007. 331.8928 HON HARLEM SPEAKS: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance Ed. by Cary D. Wintz. Sourcebooks, 2007. 305.552 HAR Cathryn Stockett THE HELP Amy Einhorn Books, cop. 2009. FIC STO Dan R. Warren IF IT TAKES ALL SUMMER: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964 University of Alabama Press, 2008. 323.1196 WAR

Richard Iton IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK FANTASTIC: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era Oxford University Press, 2008. 323.1196 ITO Ajuan Maria Mance INVENTING BLACK WOMEN: African American Women Poets and Self-representation, 1877-2000 University of Tennessee Press, 2007. 811.5098 MAN Bettye Collier-Thomas JESUS, JOBS, AND JUSTICE: African American Women and Religion Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. 277.3082 COL Harvard Sitkoff KING: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop Hill and Wang, 2009. 323.092 SIT Eric J. Sundquist KING'S DREAM Yale University Press, 2009. 323.092 SUN James Oliver Horton LANDMARKS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY Oxford University Press, 2005. 973.0496 HOR Ira Berlin THE MAKING OF AFRICAN AMERICA: The Four Great Migrations Viking, 2010. 973 BER Gary S. Selby MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE RHETORIC OF FREEDOM: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights Baylor University Press, 2008. 323.092 SEL THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., ENCYCLOPEDIA By Clayborne Carson et al. Greenwood Press, 2008. 323.092 MAR James Campbell MIDDLE PASSAGES: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005 Penguin Press, 2006. 916.0422 CAM Jacqueline Najuma Stewart MIGRATING TO THE MOVIES: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity University of California Press, 2005. 791.4365 STE

MONTAGE OF A DREAM: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes Ed. by John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar. University of Missouri Press, 2007. 818.5209 MON Clay Risen A NATION ON FIRE: America in the Wake of the King Assassination John Wiley & Sons, 2009. 973.923 RIS Martin Luther King, Jr. THE PAPERS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: Vol. 6, Advocate of the Social Gospel, September 1948-March 1963 University of California Press, 2007. 323.092 KIN R. Scott Baker PARADOXES OF DESEGREGATION: African American Struggles for Educational Equity in Charleston, South Carolina, 1926-1972 University of South Carolina Press, 2006. 379.263 BAK Robert W. Fairlie and Alicia M. Robb RACE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States MIT Press, c2008. 338.642 FAI Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff THE RACE BEAT: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation Knopf, 2006. 070.4493 ROB Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. RAILROADS IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A Photographic Journey Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. 331.6 KOR Arnold Rampersad RALPH ELLISON: A Biography Knopf, 2007. 818.5409 RAM Charles Johnson and Bob Adelman REMEMBERING MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: His Life and Crusade in Pictures Time Inc. Home Entertainment Books/Twenty-First century Books, 2008. 323.092 JOH RHETORIC, RELIGION AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1954-1965 Ed. by Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon. Baylor University Press, 2006. 323.1196 RHE

Jeffrey B. Ferguson THE SAGE OF SUGAR HILL: George S. Schuyler and the Harlem Renaissance Yale University Press, 2005. 813.52 SCH Larry Tye SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Legend Random House, 2009. 796.357 TYE Ronald L. Jackson II SCRIPTING THE BLACK MASCULINE BODY: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media State University of New York Press, 2006. 305.3889 JAC Patrick D. Jones THE SELMA OF THE NORTH: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee Harvard University Press, 2009. 323.1196 JON Douglas A. Blackmon SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II Anchor Books, 2009. 305.896 BLA Kevin Phinney SOULED AMERICAN: How Black Music Transformed White Culture Billboard Books, 2005. 780.8996 PHI T. THOMAS FORTUNE, THE AFRO-AMERICAN AGITATOR: A Collection of Writings, 1880-1928 Ed. by Shawn Leigh Alexande. University Press of Florida, 2008. 973.0496 FOR Iain Anderson THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture University of Pennsylvania Press, cop. 2007. 781.65 AND Patrice D. Rankine ULYSSES IN BLACK: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 818.5409 RAN Robert J. Norrell UP FROM HISTORY: The Life of Booker T. Washington Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009. 370.92 NOR

Stephen Tuck WE AIN’T WHAT WE OUGHT TO BE: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. 323.1196 TUC Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz WHAT A MIGHTY POWER WE CAN BE: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality Princeton University Press, 2006. 369.396 SKO Ricky L. Jones WHAT'S WRONG WITH OBAMAMANIA?: Black America, Black Leadership, and the Death of Political Imagination State University of New York Press, 2008. 973.0496 JON Jonathan Rieder THE WORD OF THE LORD IS UPON ME: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008. 323.092 RIE Daniel Grassian WRITING THE FUTURE OF BLACK AMERICA: Literature of the Hip-Hop Generation University of South Carolina Press, 2009. 810.9896 GRA  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALICE WALKER: “EVERYDAY USE” 

26 minutes, produced in 2005 

This is a filmed adaptation of Alice Walker’s short 

story “Everyday Use.” It is the story of Maggie, who 

has not ventured outside her rural community, who 

sees the old family quilt – an heirloom already 

promised to her – as something with practical utility 

as well as tradition. Her more worldly, educated 

sister wants to hang it on the wall as art. With whom 

will their mother agree? 

 

AMERICA BEYOND THE COLOR LINE 

220 minutes, produced in 2003 

In four programs, Gates travels to four different 

parts of America ‐ the East Coast, the deep South, 

inner‐city Chicago and Hollywood. He explores this 

rich and diverse landscape, social as well as 

geographic, and meets the people who are defining 

black America, from the most famous and influential 

‐ Colin Powell, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, 

Fannie Maeʹs Franklin Raines, Jesse Jackson, Russell 

Simmons, Chris Tucker, Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou, 

Morgan Freeman ‐ to those at the grassroots. 

 

BARACK OBAMA 

47 minutes, produced in 2008 

When he called himself “a skinny kid with a funny 

name” at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, 

his star was already rising. By the time he triumphed 

in the 2004 Illinois Senate race, he was the golden 

child of a Democratic party in desperate need of a 

charismatic leader.  

 

BOYCOTT 

112 minutes, produced in 2001 

Boycott is the story of Rosa Parks and the birth of the 

modern era Civil Rights movement 49 years ago.  

When mild‐mannered seamstress Rosa Parks 

refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger 

in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, events were set in 

motion that would change history. After Rosa’s 

arrest and while waiting for her appeal, the newly 

created Montgomery Improvement Association 

decides to start a boycott of the buses. To lead them, 

they elect 26‐year‐old Martin Luther King, Jr., a new 

minister and recent transplant to the community. 

The boycott lasted 381 days and resulted in the 

Supreme Court ruling on November 13, 1956 that 

bus segregation was unconstitutional.  

 

CITIZEN KING 

120 minutes, produced in 2004 

Citizen King pushes past the myths that have 

obscured Kingʹs story to reclaim the history of a 

peopleʹs leader. Using the personal recollections, 

diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts of friends, 

family, journalists, law enforcement officers and 

historians, this film brings fresh insights to Kingʹs 

difficult journey, his charismatic ‐‐ if at times flawed 

‐‐ leadership, and his truly remarkable impact. 

 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS 

50 minutes, produced in 2005 

As a young man, he experienced the brutality of 

slavery firsthand. As an outspoken leader of the 

abolitionist movement, he became one of the most 

powerful voices in American history. 

 

LEGACY 

90 minutes, produced in 1999 

Legacy is the five‐year long story of one family’s 

triumphant journey out of poverty and despair.  The 

film follows the Collins family, an African‐American 

family in Chicago.   Through the powerful and 

dignified voices of women from three generations of 

the Collins family, the inspiring story is told of how 

members of one family, broke free of welfare, 

recovered from substance abuse and escaped the 

specter of violence in their community.  

 

LET FREEDOM SING 

102 minutes, produced in 2009 

Let Freedom Sing retells one of the most important 

stories in American history in a dramatically new 

way.  Billie Holiday’s song about lynching, “Strange 

Fruit,” takes us back to the era of brutally enforced 

segregation.  And then the story sweeps us to the 

heart of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and 

explores its impact on music, politics and culture in 

the decades that followed. There are dramatic first‐

person accounts by Mississippi Freedom Riders who 

sang to give themselves courage in the face of 

danger.  There are the songs from the 1963 March on 

Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave 

his “I Have a Dream” speech.  And there are award‐

winning artists and musicians whose songs inspired 

generations to take up the struggle for civil rights 

and human rights throughout America and the 

world.  Included are:  Mahalia Jackson,  Marvin 

Gaye,  Nina Simone,  Aretha Franklin,  Chuck D,  

DVDs  

James Brown,  Hugh Masekela,  Curtis Mayfield,  the 

Staple Singers,  Bob Marley, Five Blind Boys,  Stevie 

Wonder,  Pete Seeger and many others.  

 MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI 

60 minutes, produced in 2008 

In 1960, a young boxer named Cassius Clay came to 

Miami, determined to become world heavyweight 

champion. In the end, he became something more—

a legend. Combining original footage with 

interviews of those who were closest to him—

including his trainer, Angelo Dundee, fight doctor 

Ferdie Pacheco, and Aliʹs Miami neighbors and 

friends—Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami is the 

story of that evolution, as well as a chronicle of 

Miamiʹs historic black community and the famed 

Fifth Street Gym. See why, without Miami, there 

might never have been a Muhammad Ali. 

 

ROADS TO MEMPHIS  

79 minutes, produced in 2010 

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took 

place in Memphis, Tennessee 42 years ago. Roads to 

Memphis tells the story of the assassin, James Earl 

Ray, and his target, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The 

film also captures the turbulent forces at that time in 

American society that led these two men to their 

violent and tragic collision in Memphis. This is 

neither a strict biography of James Earl Ray, nor a 

repetition of familiar highlights from King’s final 

months. It is a thought‐provoking portrait of 

America in the crisis‐laden year of 1968, in which 

Senator Robert Kennedy (President John Kennedy’s 

brother) was assassinated only a month prior to Dr. 

Martin Luther King Jr.’s killing. Major players 

related to King and Ray offer insightful 

commentary.   

 

THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN 

106 minutes, produced in 1995 

The Tuskegee Airmen is an inspirational and 

powerfully told story of some of the men among the 

first black aviators in the US military. The film 

details how the legendary African American fighter 

pilots of World War II, overcame racism for the right 

to serve their country and emerged from World War 

II wreathed with honor.  The “Fightin’ 99th” was the 

first squadron of Black combat fighter pilots and the 

forerunners of nearly 1,000 Black fliers. The film 

itself focuses on the struggles of a group of college‐

educated, patriotic African‐Americans who enlist as 

airmen as part of a government training program in 

Tuskegee, Alabama, during the height of World War 

II.