Explore books, streaming videos, databases, and more from the SCC library and learn about Black and African American History in the United States.
Black History Month grew out of Negro History Week, which was established in February 1926 by African-American historian Carter G. Woodson, who founded the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. Expanded in 1976 to a month-long observance, this celebration of the contributions and achievements of African Americans was initially designed to encompass the birthday of the abolitionist orator and journalist Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) on February 14 as well as Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The event is widely observed by schools, churches, libraries, clubs, and organizations wishing to draw attention to the contributions of African Americans.
"Black History Month." Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World, ed. Pearline Jaikumar, Omnigraphics, Inc., 6th edition, 2018. Credo Reference.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History chooses a theme every year for Black History Month. For 2025, the theme is African Americans and Labor. Learn more about this year's theme and check out past themes on their website.
No single artist represented the contemporary art scene of the 1980s more than Jean-Michel Basquiat. He rose from an anonymous, homeless graffiti artist spraying cryptic social messages on building walls around New York City's SoHo and East Village in the late 1970s to become, within five years, one of the first African American artists to receive international recognition, with sales of his works grossing millions of dollars.
"Jean-Michel Basquiat." Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 5, Gale, 1993. Gale In Context: Biography.
Read more about Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, American, 1960 - 1988. The Ankle. 1982. Artstor, library-artstororg.ezproxy.scottsdalecc.edu/asset/AYALEARTIG_10312578845
The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.
Blackbirds Singing celebrates the tradition of Black women's political speech and labor, allowing the voices and powerful visions of African American women to speak across generations building power for the world.
Timeless photos offer a rare portrait of the jubilant, vibrant, vital, nearly hidden, and now all-but-vanished world of small-town Black rodeos. Juneteenth Rodeo ultimately seeks to put Black cowboys and cowgirls where they have always belonged: in the center of the frame.
In Koshersoul, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. Koshersoul also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty's own passage to and within Judaism. Koshersoul includes 48-50 recipes.
No real account of black women physicians in the US exists, and what little mention is made of these women in existing histories is often insubstantial or altogether incorrect. In this work of extensive research, Jasmine Brown offers a rich new perspective, penning the long-erased stories of nine pioneering black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a black woman first entered medical school.
Shaking up New York and national politics by becoming the first African American congresswoman and, later, the first Black major-party presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm left an indelible mark as an "unbought and unbossed" firebrand and a leader in politics for meaningful change. Anastasia C. Curwood interweaves Chisholm's public image, political commitments, and private experiences to create a definitive account of a consequential life.
An historical graphic novel inspired by the life of legendary mobster Stephanie Saint-Clair. A racketeer and a bootlegger, Saint-Clair dedicated her wealth and compassion to the struggling masses of Harlem, giving loans and paying debts.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years.
A fascinating history celebrating Black players in Major League Baseball from the 1800s through today, with special insight into what the future may hold.
The 1619 Project's lyrical picture book in verse chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor-winning author Renée Watson.
Buy Black examines the role American Black women play in Black consumption in the US and worldwide, with a focus on their pivotal role in packaging Black feminine identity since the 1960s. Halliday spotlights how the products created by Black women have furthered Black women's position as the moral compass and arbiter of Black racial progress.
A bold and haunting debut story collection that follows various characters as they navigate the day-to-day perils of Jim Crow racism. These are incisive and intimate portraits of African American families in everyday moments of anxiety and crisis that look at how they use agency to navigate their predicaments.
Introducing internationally bestselling author Bolu Babalola's dazzling debut novel, full of passion, humor, and heart, that centers on a young Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about.
In this sensational, page-turning debut novel, a high-profile female journalist's world is upended when her fiancé's name turns up in a viral social media post. The List is a piercing and dazzlingly clear-sighted debut about secrets, lies, and the internet.
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.
From the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of This Is My America comes another thriller about a wrongly accused teen desperate to reclaim both his innocence and his first love. Critically acclaimed author Kim Johnson delivers another social justice thriller that shines a light on being young and Black in America.
A poignant and lyrical young adult novel-in-verse about a Black teen coming of age in an anxiety-inducing world. Forever is Now, a powerful young adult novel-in-verse about mental health, love, family, Black joy, and finding your voice and power in an unforgiving world.
A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren't just high, they're deadly, in this "spine-chilling thriller" (Publishers Weekly).
At the heart of this feature documentary is the groundbreaking Two Centuries of Black American Art exhibition curated by the late African American artist and scholar David Driskell in 1976. Held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this pioneering exhibit featured more than 200 works of art by 63 artists and cemented the essential contributions of Black artists in America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The film shines a light on the exhibition’s extraordinary impact on generations of African American artists who have staked a claim on their rightful place within the 21st-century art world.
Discover the life and music of jazz luminary Ron Carter, the most recorded bassist in history. Featuring original concert footage and candid interviews with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Jon Batiste, Finding the Right Notes is a vibrant portrait of one of America's great musical trailblazers.
Zora Neale Hurston has long been considered a literary giant of the Harlem Renaissance, but her anthropological and ethnographic endeavors were equally important and impactful. This is an in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.
How It Feels to Be Free takes an unprecedented look at the intersection of African American women artists, politics and entertainment and tells the story of how six trailblazing performers—Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier— changed American culture through their films, fashion, music and politics.
Making Black America: Through the Grapevine is a four-part series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., that chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people—beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” Professor Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders, and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today.
An intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism. Lewis became one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble”.
1619 was a significant year in the history of America for better and for worse. In Jamestown, Virginia the first slaves were imported and sold. Meet Nikole Hannah-Jones; author of New York Times' "1619 Project" who will examine the impact of that year on American History, culture and development.
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