February is Black History Month, and I think too often we find ourselves limiting this and all it stands for to this one single month. It is meant to be a celebration of achievements throughout history. It is meant for us to come to terms with today’s world and support anti-racist action through education, amplification, and advocacy. Paying special awareness to Black and African American history and contributions isn’t something one should just put a time constraint on- it is too important and expansive for that.
As a chapter of Her Campus at Wichita, we set our sights on continuing to learn, listen and grow, not just during this month, but beyond. We encourage our readers and fellow chapters to do the same! We’ve put together a list of ways we think are great to get started here…
Books To Read:
- Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- I’m Still Here, Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Vice President Kamala Harris
- The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
- The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Things No One Else Can Teach Us by Humble the Poet
Podcasts To Listen To:
- Black Girl In Om by Lauren Ash
- Black Girl Podcast by Gia Peppers, Scottie Beam, Alysha P., Saphira Martin, and Bex Francois
- Black History Buff by King Kurus
- Code Switch by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby
- Strong Black Lead with Tracy Clayton
- The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Ears Edition
- What A Day by Akilah Hughes and Gideon Resnick
Videos To Watch:
- 13th on Netflix
- Becoming on Netflix
- Celebrating Black History Month: The First Black Graduates Of Harvard Law School on YouTube
- Moonlight on Netflix
- Okalani Dawkins: Black History Is American History TED Talk
- See You Yesterday on Netflix
- Self Made on Netflix
- Soul on Disney+
- The Hate U Give on Hulu
- Queen & Slim on Hulu
Activists To Support:
- Angela Rye
- Brea Baker
- Indya Moore
- Michelle Saahene
- Naomi Wadler
- Nupol Kiazolu
- Rachel Elizabeth Cargle
- Winter BreeAnne
To close this out, I found this awesome excerpt from the Opinion Editor for The Collegian Jayla Hodge: “Black history month helps African American and Black Americans feel connected and proud of their past, and offers a chance for other identities and cultures to learn, engage, and celebrate the widespread accomplishments of this community, but it is still restricting in nature. It is important that those in majority identities make the effort to educate themselves to Black history outside the month of February.”