Black History Month dates back to 1926, at which time it was known as Negro History Week. At this time, the celebration lasted only a week, and began on February 12th. The reception from the general public at first wasn’t as good as the initiators had hoped. However, Negro History Week gained popularity eventually. In the 1930s, the celebration was observed in almost every state which had a large African-American population. Join us at NUNM as we celebrate, learn and discuss black history.
Schedule of Events
Friday, Feb. 1: Common reads begin
Friday, Feb. 15: Community Hour— Speaker: Maurice Evans has been working in social services and public health to uplift communities affected by stigma, homophobia, racism, and poverty. Maurice will talk about his personal experience working in the healthcare field and present some best practices on how we all can be more affirming and welcoming when serving black and African-American communities.
If you missed the HIV Treatment in Black Community Presentation by Maurice, view the recording, and then we would love for you to fill out the short evaluation for the presentation.
*Please note that Community Education credit is only available for ND students who were in attendance at the event.
Saturday, Feb. 16: OSL Sponsored Event—”If Beale Street Could Talk” movie screening
Saturday, Feb. 23: OSL Sponsored Event—Know Your City: Hidden History of Albina Tour
- Tickets: $15.43 per person at The Office of Student Life has tickets available for the first 13 people that RSVP.
- RSVP for this event: Tyler Bieber
Thursday, Feb. 28: Group discussion on common reads
- RSVP for this event: Tyler Bieber or Ayasha Shamsud-Din
Friday, March 1: Group discussion on common reads (as needed)
- RSVP for this event: Tyler Bieber or Ayasha Shamsud-Din
OSL/DEI Study Guide (Common reads, videos, and information)
Please read/view this material before attending the end-of-month group discussions
Authors and Notable Works
- Poems by Langston Hughes (misc. years)
- My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to my Nephew by James Baldwin (1963)
- Letter from a Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
- How It Feels to be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston (1928)
- Learning to Read by Malcolm X and Alex Haley (1965)
Health, Wellness, and Struggle
- Black History Month: A Medical Perspective—People by Duke University Medical Center Library
- Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights by Angela Y. Davis (1981)
- Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by Allan Brandt (1978)
- An Open Letter to Black Women About Mental Health by Minaa B. (2015)
Portland’s Black Heritage—Multimedia
- Oregon Black Pioneers (Website with misc. readings)
- The Vanport Flood by Michael N. McGregor (Essay, 2003)
- Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment by (Academic Paper, 2007)
- When Portland Banned Blacks: Oregon’s Shameful History as an All-White State by DeNeen Brown (Feature, 2017)
- The People’s Plan by Portland African-American Leadership Forum (Planning Document, 2017)
- PAALF website: https://www.paalf.org/
- In the Past Two Years, Black Women Have Made Historic Achievements in Oregon by Aaron Mesh (Feature, 2019)
- Vanport https://watch.opb.org/video/oregon-experience-vanport/
- Jazz Town https://watch.opb.org/video/oregon-experience-jazz-town/
- Local Color https://watch.opb.org/video/opb-specials-local-color/
Race in Contemporary America—Multimedia
- Critical Race Theory: Its Origins, History, and Importance to the Discourses and Rhetorics of Race by Aja Y. Martinez (Academic Paper, 2016)
- The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Essay, 2015)
- Why I’m Black, Not African American by John McWhorter (Essay, 2004)
- What Is the Biggest Misconception About Racism? (Video, The Atlantic Magazine)
- Walking while black (Video, Vox)
- Queerness on the Frontlines of #BlackLivesMatter (Video, MSNBC)
Additional Reading Suggestions
- Oluo, Ijeoma. So you want to talk about race. Seal Press, 2018. Print.
- Obama, Michelle. Becoming. Crown Publishing Group; First Edition edition, 2018. Print.
- Khan-Cullors, asha bandele, Angela Davis (Foreword by). When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. St. Martin’s Press, 2018. Print.
- Alexander, Michelle. Cornel West (Introduction). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, 2012. Print. (located in NUNM Library)
- Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973. Print. (located in NUNM Library)
- McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance – a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. Print.
- hooks, bell. Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery. Routledge, 2015. Print. (located in NUNM Library)
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. Spiegel & Grau, 2017. Print.
Check out the NUNM Library Black History Month display for additional resources for the NUNM community.