Black History Month 2013 commemorates two significant events in American History, the 150th anniversary of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. and Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech.
Black History Month began in 1926, largely through the efforts of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. February was selected because it is in February that we celebrate the birthdays of two great men, President Abraham Lincoln and Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. An interesting project is the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project by Northern Illinois University. Also, you might want to check out Stanford University’s The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.
Books of interest compiled by Mary Schulte of the Kansas City Star:
- I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Bryan Collier
- Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Sean Qualls
- Desmond and the Very Mean Word by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams, illustrated by A. G. Ford
- H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination by Christopher Myers
- The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
- Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone
- I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., paintings by Kadir Nelson
- A Splash of Red, the Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant
- Unspoken, A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole
- Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andreas Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Related Articles:
- Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865 (SSPP Reads 02/04/2009)
- February, Black History Month (SSPP Reads 02/11/2009)
- Black History Month, 2010 (SSPP Reads 02/10/2010)
- The Meaning and Making of Emancipation (eBook available from the National Archives)
Graphic from Perris Valley Historical & Museum Association, Perris CA
