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Library Has Plenty of Black History Month Material
On Jan. 31, President Trump issued a proclamation declaring February as National Black History Month. The overarching theme for 2025 is “African Americans and Labor,” which centers on the profound ways in which African Americans’ experiences are historically interconnected with various types of work and working – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary, visible and invisible (Dr. Kaye Whitehead). This intersection between the lives of black people and their historical connection with labor is at the center of CDPL’s display honoring the contributions of black Americans to our nation. From books to film, we hope you’ll find an item or a topic that sparks your curiosity.
Growing your knowledge of history? We can help. In “A Working People: A History of African American Workers Since Emancipation” (331.6 Rei) Steven Reich examines the economic, political, and cultural forces that have forged America’s black labor since emancipation. It’s an accessible and inclusive documentation of US labor history of the 19th and 20th centuries. History and education intersect in Noliwe Rooks’s “A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune” (370.92 Rooks). Rooks shares the life and legacy of a visionary leader whose painful path toward education led to a university that bears her name to this day. Bethune is the only African American leader whose statue stands in the rotunda, the “symbolic and physical heart” of the U.S. Capitol.
Black people’s perspectives are present and documented in various professional fields. Rachel J. Webster draws on oral history and conversations to recreate the lives of distant relatives in “Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family” (920 Web). Banneker, an African American mathematician, writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation, was hired by Thomas Jefferson to help survey Washington D.C. in 1791. “Bird Brother: A Falconer’s Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife” (921 Stotts, R.) shares Rodney Stotts’s extraordinary journey to becoming a conservationist and one of America’s few black master falconers. From pulling trash from the Anacostia River to reintroducing bald eagles to the region, Stotts takes readers through the joys and challenges of achieving his dream. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s “The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred” (523.01 Pre) shares her love for physics with a tone and rhythm infused by pop culture and politics. While her vision of the cosmos is non-traditional, she strives to give an understanding of the universe where everyone can see its wonders and find a place of their own within it.
When it comes to the Arts (including the culinary kind), black people have established a wide, long-lasting presence, in our nation’s homes. “The Harlem Renaissance: 100 Years of Black Culture” (DVD 974.7 Harlem) focuses on the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City and its cultural explosion in the early 20th century. “Summer of Soul” (DVD 780.78 Sum) is part music film, part historical record created around an epic event in the summer of 1969: The Harlem Cultural Festival in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). “Gospel” (DVD TV 305.8960 Gospel), written by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., honors black spirituality through sermon and song while bringing secular and gospel artists together in a moving celebration. “August Wilson: A Life” (921 Wilson, A.) by Patti Hartigan is the first authoritative biography of the most successful American playwright of the late 20th century. Wilson’s plays include “Fences” (1987), winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which was adapted into a film with the same title starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (DVD FIC Fen).
In the Culinary Arts, we hold a plethora of materials in our collection that highlight the various talents of African American chefs and cooks’ creations with a dash of History. “Black Food: Stories, Art, and Essays” (641.592 Bla) explores the role of food and black people’s foodways within the U.S. and around the world. Chef, restaurateur and TV show host Marcus Samuelsson highlights the diverse deliciousness of Black cooking in “The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food” (641.59 Sam). Talking about delicious food, “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” (641.5784 Mitchell) shares the history, tradition, and the pitmaster’s expertise in whole-hog barbeque. For dessert, you may try “Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories” (641.8653 Ada), by Jocelyn Delk Adams, featuring vintage cakes from her family’s recipes with modern twists. Finally, “Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, & Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks” (641.87 Tipton-Martin) by Toni Tipton-Martin will provide you with ideas (and the history behind them) for your next adult get-together.
This is just a short list of what you’ll find in our Black History Month display. We have poetry, romance, comedies, mysteries, and thrillers on the page and on the screen displaying the talents of African American authors, actors, directors, and producers. We hope you encounter what brings you the joy of learning as you find yourself on a journey through windows and doors into this quilted experience of American History.
Come visit us and check our display on the second floor at CDPL. Our staff is happy to assist you in finding materials in our collection. The library is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to5 p.m.
Ivette de Assis-Wilson is the Adult Services Department Manager at CDPL.