February is Black American History Month. Your local library may feature a collection of books, a display of old photographs, historic documents, lectures, creative workshops, and/or performances for the occasion. Check your local library’s website and online calendar to find out what it is doing for Black American History Month. Also, your library’s website may have a reading list of recommended books about Black Americans or by Black Americans.
Most of us have limited time for hobbies like reading, but I encourage you to borrow at least one library resource that is relevant to Black American History Month. You can borrow a children’s book to read to your kids. You can borrow a documentary on DVD from the library. Perhaps, you can find a video recording of a live Black American theater performance on DVD. Consider borrowing a CD of classic Black American music.
In regards to e-audiobooks, I have not had good experiences, borrowing non-fiction e-audiobooks from OverDrive. I have discovered that OverDrive e-audiobooks play excerpts from non-fiction books. OverDrive’s fiction e-audiobooks appear to be complete. Hoopla’s non-fiction e-audiobooks tend to be more complete than OverDrive, but there are rare occasions where it seems that a non-fiction e-audiobook has skipped chapters or sections.
If you have plenty of time, I encourage you to look for primary sources of Black American history. Authors of secondary sources omit facts in such a way as to shape our worldviews in contradiction to historic and scientific facts in order to preserve the status quo. Many of us, who have attended or graduated from college, learn that everything we thought we knew is a lie. Reading primary sources will allow us to ask questions, find answers, think for ourselves, and form our own conclusions, independently.
I have listed some primary sources to help get you started. As for myself, I hope to read literature that I have read about in textbooks, but I was never assigned to read the primary source or landmark literature for a class. Slave testimony, edited by John Blassingame, is frequently assigned by college professors. This book is very thick and has a very small font size. The good thing about this book is that it has an index at the end of the book. You don’t have to read the book from beginning to end in order to find a good quote. You can use the index at the end of the book to find only those topics and quotes that are relevant to your research.
The British Parliamentary Papers are primary sources written by British officials. Professors of African history use this multivolume set to collect eyewitness accounts to historic events and culture in Africa. This is a multivolume set of large, dusty books. There is a separate index book for this set. The index book may be labeled volume one and librarians, usually, store it away from public access. You may have to ask the librarian for the index book to the British Parliamentary Papers in order for you to identify which subsequent volume contains the source information you need. You cannot search the primary source documents by keyword or topic indexing as is the case with modern indexes such as the one at the end of the book, Slave testimony. You will have to read through an entire primary source document to find relevant eyewitness accounts of historic events. You may find what you are looking for; you may not. You just have to keep reading relevant documents until you find quotes specific to your research.
The American slave is a multivolume set of slave narratives collected by the Federal Writer’s Project. I have never used that collection, so I don’t know if there is a separate, index book for it. I just know that professors frequently tell students about these slave narratives by the Federal Writer’s Project in the library.
Whatever you decide to read, view, or listen to for Black American History Month, do what you can within your limitations and your schedule. Remember, Black American history books were sitting in the library all year long. We don’t have to wait for February to arrive in order to increase our knowledge on the subject.
Reference
Blassingame, John W., editor. Slave testimony: two centuries of letters, speeches, interviews, and autobiographies. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers. Colonies: Africa. Shannon: Irish University Press, 1968.
Rawick, George P., editor. The American slave: a composite autobiography. Westport: Greenwood Pub. Co., 1972.
The Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers subject set on Africa (70 volumes). Shannon: Irish University Press, 1971.
Links:
African-American History Month by the Library of Congress
Malcolm X-Field Slave vs. House Slave, YouTube video
Malcolm X-On a 20th Century Slavery, YouTube video
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. talking about reparations for slavery, YouTube video
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Tour Schedules
Dance Theatre of Harlem, Tour Dates
Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Performance Schedule
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