Black History Month @ Taft: Home

The 1619 Project 

The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

BlackPast.org

BlackPast is dedicated to providing reliable information on the history of Black people across the globe, and especially in North America. Our goal is to promote greater understanding of our common human experience through knowledge of the diversity of the Black experience and the ubiquity of the global Black presence.

View on the library database Classroom Video on Demand

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (6 part series from PBS)

Written and presented by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, this six-hour series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed -- forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds. 

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1985 (14 part series from PBS)

The definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, and a Television Critics Association Award, Eyes on the Prize is the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America. 

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots (University Edition) (6 part series from Eleventh Day Entertainment)

If prevalent and accepted accounts of American history—both scholarly and those portrayed by Hollywood—are to be believed, the face of the U.S. armed services has always been white. For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots finally, and for the first time, sets the record straight with an all-star cast who read from a collection of letters, diaries, speeches, and military records that document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-Americans across four centuries of warfare. 

Facts about the U.S. Black Population 

This fact sheet from the Pew Research Center is a profile of the demographic, geographic and economic characteristics of the U.S. Black population in 2019. 

Additional reports from the Pew Research Center,

• How Black and Hispanic Americans view clinical trials to establish the safety and effectiveness of new treatments, such as COVID-19 vaccines.

• Black and White Americans are far apart in their views of reparations for slavery

• Black Lives Matter tops list of groups that Black Americans see as helping them most in recent years

• Race Is Central to Identity for Black Americans and Affects How They Connect With Each Other

• For Black Americans, family and friends are a primary source of information on U.S. Black history

• and many more!