Black History Month - Black Migrations

Celebrate the generations of African Americans who have influenced and enriched our nation and society during Black History Month.

The University Library is proud to celebrate Black History Month by offering a variety of resources and a curated display highlighting this year’s theme, Black Migrations, located in the Library Lobby.

The theme this year is Black Migrations. As the Association for the Study of African American Life and History highlights, “Black Migrations emphasizes the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities. While inclusive of earlier centuries, this theme focuses especially on the twentieth century through today. Beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century, African American migration patterns included relocation from southern farms to southern cities; from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West; from the Caribbean to US cities as well as to migrant labor farms; and the emigration of noted African Americans to Africa and to European cities, such as Paris and London, after the end of World War I and World War II.  Such migrations resulted in a more diverse and stratified interracial and intra-racial urban population amid a changing social milieu, such as the rise of the Garvey movement in New York, Detroit, and New Orleans; the emergence of both black industrial workers and black entrepreneurs; the growing number and variety of urban churches and new religions; new music forms like ragtime, blues, and jazz; white backlash as in the Red Summer of 1919; the blossoming of visual and literary arts, as in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Paris in the 1910s and 1920s. The theme Black Migrations equally lends itself to the exploration of the century’s later decades from spatial and social perspectives, with attention to “new” African Americans because of the burgeoning African and Caribbean population in the US; Northern African Americans’ return to the South; racial suburbanization; inner-city hyperghettoization; health and environment; civil rights and protest activism; electoral politics; mass incarceration; and dynamic cultural production.”

Since 1976, the month of February has been designated Black History Month, or National African American History Month, and is a time to recognize, celebrate, and honor the rich and diverse history of African Americans.

The month-long celebration includes resources highlighted in our display, thousands of resources available through our e-resources, and other resources, such as Films on Demand. Check out these titles of interest:

Birth of a Movement

Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi

We the People: From Crispus Attucks to Barack Obama

A Filmmaker’s Look at Ralph Bunche

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow series

The Longest Struggle: The History of the NAACP series

Roots series (2016 remake of the 1977 blockbuster miniseries)

America’s Black Eagles series

Enjoy these library resources as we pay tribute by celebrating and learning about the generations of African Americans who have influenced and enriched our nation and society.