African American History Month 2023
Black History Month Celebrations
Here are a few events happening throughout the city of Birmingham to commemorate Black History Month: 
Black Business Spotlight: JSCC-Clanton
Resilience: Free Communities of Color
Across the nation, free Black people created an infrastructure that helped them to survive. At the center was the Church, which guided all aspects of community life. It was an incubator for important institutions that strengthened and enriched the community. Facing racism, violence, and economic hardship, free Black people turned inward. They forged autonomous, tight-knit communities and neighborhoods—foundations for freedom.
Resilience: Portraits of African Americans
"Portraits of African Americans," serves as a who’s-who of both well-known and lesser-known history makers--African American notables who have made significant contributions to science, the arts, politics and sports. Each portrait includes biographical information about each individual and their importance in history.
Resilience: Black is Beautiful
The Emergence of Black Culture & Identity in the 60s and 70s: The phrase “black is beautiful” referred to a broad embrace of black culture and identity. It called for an appreciation of the black past as a worthy legacy, and it inspired cultural pride in contemporary black achievements.
Resilience: What Black Joy Means to Me
Three artists help us visualize what Black Joy could look like after we achieve systemic equality — the joy that can exist in an inclusive and equitable world.
Resilience: Black Joy
At the heart of the Black Joy movement is what many scholars, journalists, authors, and others are describing as resistance, resilience, and reclamation of Black Humanity. Black Joy is and has been an effective tool that has allowed individuals and groups to shift the impact of negative narratives and events in their favor.
Celebrate Black History Month
Black History Month, also called African American History Month, is a month-long commemoration of African American history and achievement that takes place each February in the United States. It was begun in 1976.The idea for Black History Month was first conceived by the historian Carter G. Woodson and members of his Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). Since 1928, the organization that Woodson founded, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, has selected an annual theme for the celebration. The theme for 2023, “Black Resistance” is intended to highlight how Black Americans have fought against racial inequality.
Black History Month Mural Poster and Digital Project: by JSCC-Clanton Campus
As we take a moment to reflect on this year's theme, we delve into two significant historical events that invoke the idea of Black resistance and the resilience showcased in rebuilding community, economy, and personhood: the Wilmington, North Carolina Race Riot of 1898 and the Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Massacre of 1921. Please browse though the icons on this project curated by Jefferson State Community College to learn about past events and responses to them in today's world.
Black Resistance: In Words & Images
Freedom a visual collection of African Americans struggle for rights and justice (Library of Congress Collection).
The Struggle for African American Freedom: The ideal of freedom is an innovative notion that can be found at the heart of America. This ideal is embodied in the Declaration of Independence and protected in the Constitution. But freedom -- especially for African Americans -- has been elusive, fought for through social movements and struggle.
From Rosa Park's arrest to the Freedom Rides: The High Museum of Art holds one of the most significant collections of photographs of the Civil Rights Movement. The works in this exhibition are only a small selection of the collection, which includes more than 300 photographs that document the social protest movement, from Rosa Parks’s arrest to the Freedom Rides to the tumultuous demonstrations of the late 1960s.
A Tradition of Activism
A Tradition of Activism: Throughout history, African Americans have taken action to improve their lives and challenge America to live up to its democratic ideals. Working both within and across racial lines, Black activists mobilized to abolish slavery, secure civil rights, fight against injustice, and expand social and economic opportunities.
Black Resistance Through Music
We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence: The civil rights movement codified hymns of resistance, but the soul and funk that poured from radios paid mind to police harassment and other threats too, sometimes more pointedly. There was never a moment, in fact, when Black musicians put aside their commitment to telling the truth of how Black people have been wronged, and survived, and fought back.
Lift Every Voice by ISBN: 9780742558113Publication Date: 2008-12-16Since their enslavement in West Africa and transport to plantations of the New World, black people have made music that has been deeply entwined with their religious, community, and individual identities. Music was one of the most important constant elements of African American culture in the centuries-long journey from slavery to freedom. It also continued to play this role in blacks' post-emancipation odyssey from second-class citizenship to full equality. Lift Every Voice traces the roots of black music in Africa and slavery and its evolution in the United States from the end of slavery to the present day. The music's creators, consumers, and distributors are all part of the story. Musical genres such as spirituals, ragtime, the blues, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock, soul, and hip-hop--as well as black contributions to classical, country, and other American music forms--depict the continuities and innovations that mark both the music and the history of African Americans.
Black Resonance by ISBN: 9780813562506Publication Date: 2013-11-30Ever since Bessie Smith's powerful voice conspired with the "race records" industry to make her a star in the 1920s, African American writers have memorialized the sounds and theorized the politics of black women's singing. In Black Resonance, Emily J. Lordi analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Focusing on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s, Black Resonance reveals a musical-literary tradition in which singers and writers, faced with similar challenges and harboring similar aims, developed comparable expressive techniques.
Keep on Pushing by ISBN: 9781556528170Publication Date: 2011-07-01The marriage of music and social change didnt originate with the movements for civil rights and Black Power in the 1950s and 1960s, but never before and never again was the relationship between the two so dynamic. In Keep On Pushing , author Denise Sullivan presents the voices of musician-activists from this pivotal era and the artists who followed in their footsteps to become the force behind contemporary liberation music. Joining authentic voices with a bittersweet narrative covering more than fifty years of fighting oppression through song, Keep On Pushing defines the soundtrack to revolution and the price the artists paid to create it.
The Hip Hop Movement by ISBN: 9780739182437Publication Date: 2013-04-04The Hip Hop Movement offers a critical theory and alternative history of rap music and hip hop culture by examining their roots in the popular musics and popular cultures of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. Connecting classic rhythm & blues and rock & roll to the Civil Rights Movement, and classic soul and funk to the Black Power Movement, The Hip Hop Movement explores what each of these musics and movements contributed to rap, neo-soul, hip hop culture, and the broader Hip Hop Movement. Ultimately, this book's remixes (as opposed to chapters) reveal that black popular music and black popular culture have always been more than merely "popular music" and "popular culture" in the conventional sense and reflect a broader social, political, and cultural movement. With this in mind, sociologist and musicologist Reiland Rabaka critically reinterprets rap and neo-soul as popular expressions of the politics, social visions, and cultural values of a contemporary multi-issue movement: the Hip Hop Movement.
Black Resistance: Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal court decisions and an Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) order had ruled against such segregation. Nonetheless, it remained a fact of life in buses, trains, and terminals throughout the South. In May, 1961, 13 Freedom Rider volunteers, seven black, six white, and nearly all young, were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge state Jim Crow laws by riding buses together into the Deep South.
(Los Angeles-Houston Freedom Riders and local student activists.)
Freedom Riders by ISBN: 9780195136746Publication Date: 2006-01-15Here is the definitive account of a dramatic and indeed pivotal moment in American history, a critical episode that transformed the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Raymond Arsenault offers a meticulously researched and grippingly written account of the Freedom Rides, one of the most compelling chapters in the history of civil rights. Arsenault recounts how in 1961, emboldened by federal rulings that declared segregated transit unconstitutional, a group of volunteers--blacks and whites--traveled together from Washington DC through the Deep South, defying Jim Crow laws in buses and terminals, putting their bodies and their lives on the line for racial justice. The book paints a harrowing account of the outpouring of hatred and violence that greeted the Freedom Riders in Alabama and Mississippi.
The Road South by ISBN: 9780817319809Publication Date: 2018-04-30Revisits the inspiring and heroic stories of the Freedom Riders, through their own words. In May 1961, despite multiple Supreme Court rulings, segregation remained alive and well within the system of interstate travel. All across the American South, interstate buses as well as their travel facilities were divided racially. This blatant disregard for law and morality spurred the Congress of Racial Equality to send thirteen individuals-seven black, six white-on a harrowing bus trip throughout the South as a sign of protest. These original riders were met with disapproval, arrests and violence along the way, but that did not stop the movement. That summer, more than four hundred Freedom Riders continued their journey-many of them concluding their ride at Mississippi's notorious Parchman Farm, where they endured further abuses and indignities. As a result of the riders sacrifice, by November of 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission finally put an end to interstate commerce segregation, and in the process, elevated the riders to become a source of inspiration for other civil rights campaigns such as voter registration rights and school desegregation.
Beyond the Burning Bus by ISBN: 9781603060103Publication Date: 2013-06-01Anniston, Alabama, is a small industrial city between Birmingham and Atlanta. In 1961, the city's potential for race-related violence was graphically revealed when the Ku Klux Klan firebombed a Freedom Riders bus. In response to that incident, a few black and white leaders in Anniston took a progressive view that desegregation was inevitable and that it was better to unite the community than to divide it. Author Phil Noble's account is carefully researched but told from a personal viewpoint. It shows once again that the civil rights movement was not monolithic either for those who were in it or those who were opposed to it.
- Freedom Rides of 1961The First Ride (1961): In December of 1960, the Supreme Court rules in the Boynton case (Boynton v. Virginia), that segregation in inter-state travel is illegal, and that as a matter of Federal law integrated travel on interstate buses and trains is a legal right. Separate white and colored toilets and dining rooms for inter-state travelers are no longer allowed, travelers have the right to use whatever facilities they choose and sit wherever they wish.
Black Resistance: Bloody Sunday
March 7, 1965, was called "Bloody Sunday" because of the violence directed toward civil rights demonstrators during an attempted march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on that date. The purpose of the march was to protest against police brutality and the denial of voting rights; it was a continuation of earlier civil rights efforts in the Selma area that began in 1963. Participants included key leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, such as John Lewis and Hosea Williams, as well as many unsung heroes from the local community and outside supporters.
The House by the Side of the Road by ISBN: 9780817316945Publication Date: 2011-03-04On Sunday, March 7, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and six hundred followers set out on foot from Selma, Alabama, bound for Montgomery to demand greater voting rights for African Americans. As they crossed the city's Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local policemen savagely set on the marchers with tear gas and billy clubs, an event now known as "Bloody Sunday" that would become one of the most iconic in American history. King's informal headquarters in Selma was the home of Dr. Sullivan and Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson and their young daughter, Jawana. The House by the Side of the Road is Richie Jean's firsthand account of the private meetings King and his lieutenants, including Ralph David Abernathy and John Lewis, held in the haven of the Jackson home.
Cradle of Freedom by ISBN: 9780817313883Publication Date: 2004-02-03Cradle of Freedom puts a human face on the story of the black American struggle for equality in Alabama during the 1960s. While exceptional leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis, and others rose up from the ranks and carved their places in history, the burden of the movement was not carried by them alone. It was fueled by the commitment and hard work of thousands of everyday people who decided that the time had come to take a stand. Cradle of Freedom is tied to the chronology of pivotal events occurring in Alabama the Montgomery bus boycott, the Freedom Rides, the Letter from the Birmingham Jail, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, Bloody Sunday, and the Black Power movement in the Black Belt. Gaillard artfully interweaves fresh stories of ordinary people with the familiar ones of the civil rights icons.
The Shadow of Selma by ISBN: 9780813056692Publication Date: 2018-02-28The Shadow of Selma provides a comprehensive assessment of the 1965 civil rights campaign, the historical memory of the marches, and the continuing relevance of and challenges to the Voting Rights Act. The essays consider Selma not just as a keystone event but, much like Ferguson today, a transformative place: a supposedly unimportant location that became the focal point of epochal historical events. Contributors to this innovative volume examine the relationship between the memorable figures of the campaign?Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, among others?and the thousands of other unheralded people who also crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their way from Selma to Montgomery. They analyze networks that undergirded as well as opposed the movement, placing it in broader historical, political, and international contexts. Addressing the influential role of media representations from contemporary newspaper and television coverage to the 2014 Hollywood film by Ava DuVernay, several of the essays challenge the redemptive narrative that has shaped popular memory, one that glosses over ongoing racial problems.
Black Resistance: Tulsa Race Massacre
The 1921 Attack on Greenwood was one of the most significant events in Tulsa’s history. Following World War I, Tulsa was recognized nationally for its affluent African American community known as the Greenwood District. This thriving business district and surrounding residential area was referred to as “Black Wall Street.” In June 1921, a series of events nearly destroyed the entire Greenwood area.
The Roots of Greenwood: The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma has a history that is rooted in the history of Black settlements and towns in 19th century Oklahoma and a wider geography of communities of freedom that stretch far and wide across the continent for hundreds of years.
Reconstructing the Dreamland by ISBN: 9780195146851Publication Date: 2002-02-14The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was the country's bloodiest civil disturbance of the century. Leaving perhaps 150 dead, 30 city blocks burned to the ground, and more than a thousand families homeless, the riot represented an unprecedented breakdown of the rule of law. It reduced the prosperous black community of Greenwood, Oklahoma, to rubble. In Reconstructing the Dreamland, Alfred Brophy draws on his own extensive research into contemporary accounts and court documents to chronicle this devastating riot, showing how and why the rule of law quickly eroded. Brophy offers a gut-wrenching portrait of mob violence and racism run amok, both on the night of the riot and the morning after, when a coordinated sunrise attack, accompanied by airplanes, stormed through Greenwood, torching and looting the community.
The Great Oklahoma Swindle by ISBN: 9781496209986Publication Date: 2020-03-01Over the span of a century, Oklahoma gave birth to movements for an African American homeland, a vibrant Socialist Party, armed rebellions of radical farmers, and an insurrection by a man called Crazy Snake. In the same era, the state saw numerous oil booms, one of which transformed the small town of Tulsa into the "oil capital of the world." Add to the chaos one of the nation's worst episodes of racial violence, a statewide takeover by the Ku Klux Klan, and the rise of a paranoid far-right agenda by a fundamentalist preacher named Billy James Hargis and you have the recipe for America's most paradoxical state.
Black Resistance in the 21st Century
Despite the gains of legal desegregation, Making Black America reveals a fervent desire for Black spaces and institutions that provide a safe place to debate, organize and celebrate. Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores how Black cultural and political movements - from Black Power to Black Twitter - embraced a radical consciousness that championed a new generation.
African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity by ISBN: 9781684481521Publication Date: 2019-12-30Signaling such recent activist and aesthetic concepts in the work of Kara Walker, Childish Gambino, BLM, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar, and marking the exit of the Obama Administration and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this anthology explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S. The essays in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity engage readers in critical conversations by activists, scholars, and artists reflecting on national and transnational legacies of African American activism as an element of artistic practice, particularly as they concern artistic expression and race relations, and the intersections of creative processes with economic, sociological, and psychological inequalities.
Black Lives Matter and Music by ISBN: 9780253038425Publication Date: 2018-08-10Music has always been integral to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, with songs such as Kendrick Lamar's "Alright," J. Cole's "Be Free," D'Angelo and the Vanguard's "The Charade," The Game's "Don't Shoot," Janelle Monae's "Hell You Talmbout," Usher's "Chains," and many others serving as unofficial anthems and soundtracks for members and allies of the movement. In this collection of critical studies, contributors draw from ethnographic research and personal encounters to illustrate how scholarly research of, approaches to, and teaching about the role of music in the Black Lives Matter movement can contribute to public awareness of the social, economic, political, scientific, and other forms of injustices in our society.
The Making of Black Lives Matter by ISBN: 9780190601348Publication Date: 2017-06-01A condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement in a bid to help us make sense of the emotions, demands, and arguments of present-day activists and public thinkers.Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful and incendiary campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjustified treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States.
