Research Guides: Flaxman's Pop Up Libraries: Black Heritage Month

February is known nationally as Black History Month. Collectively at SAIC and across the country, we honor the history, achievements, and legacies of Black and African Americans. This annual observance’s official name—Black History Month—is a misnomer as this month is as dedicated to Black present and future as it is to Black history. We at SAIC recognize this as Black Heritage Month. Through a series of programs and initiatives, we elevate the brilliance of Black and African American people who are at the heart of our national narrative. In commemorating Black heritage, we are bringing visibility to the narratives, experiences, and legacies of Black and African Americans. Now is the time for uplifting Black joy, culture, artistry, resistance, healing, leadership, and brilliance that shape our communities.

Programs that amplify Black stories take place all-year round. Please visit Engage.saic.edu to see Black Heritage Month programs, and those beyond. If you're aware of other events and would like to promote them, or if you have ideas for events, contact Katrina Valera, Director of Student Affairs for Diversity and Inclusion at kvaler@saic.edu.

Highlighted Resources for Black Students

POC Online Classroom [Website]
"We curate resources by and for people of color... Through resources, syllabi and zines, we hope to amplify the voices of marginalized communities, educate others and ourselves on critical social justice issues, empower marginalized peoples, and incite change."
Rest for Resistance [Website]
"Rest for Resistance strives to uplift marginalized communities, those who rarely get access to adequate health care or social support. This includes Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Asian, Middle Eastern, and multiracial persons.

We also seek to create healing space for LGBTQIA+ individuals, namely trans & queer people of color, as well as other stigmatized groups such as sex workers, immigrants, persons with physical and/or mental disabilities, and those living at the intersections of all of the above."
#RacialTraumaIsReal [PDF]
Institution for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture, 2015, "We offer our recommendations as mental health professionals and advocates of the study and promotion of racial and cultural understanding and discussion. Specifically, we are hoping these recommendations will serve as a much-needed resource for people of Color. Many have written about the importance of repeated race-related traumatic events, but we felt few were speaking to the broad mental health impact we as a community are experiencing as witnesses, participants, and mental health practitioners."

Navigation

Get Started
Learn: Black American History
Honor: Black Stories
Discover: Black Art
Connect: Black Activists, Institutions, and Organizations

Get Started

Embarking on self-education can be daunting. Where do you start? This section is a selection of resources to help if you are new to these topics. After checking these out, the sections below have resources to help you dig deeper.

Learn: BlackPast.org [Website]
"BlackPast.org brings the resources of African American history into every classroom in the world. It also makes every computer, regardless of its location, a classroom in African American history."
Learn: Crash Course: Black American History [Youtube Playlist]
A series of bite-sized lessons in which, "Clint Smith will to teach you about the experience of Black people in America, from the arrival of the first enslaved Black people who arrived at Jamestown all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement."
Honor: You Had Me at Black [Podcast Series]
"You Had Me at Black is where Black Millennials tell the true-life stories you won't see on TV."
Please note: this podcast DOES NOT provide transcripts.
Discover: People of Craft [Website]
"People of Craft is a growing showcase of creatives of color and their craft in design, advertising, tech, illustration, lettering, art, and more. It’s time to redefine what a creative looks like."
Connect: 10 Modern Black Civil Rights Leaders to Follow Today [Article]
DiversityInc, January 14, 2021

Black Owned Businesses in Chicago
Use this list to support local black owned businesses! Includes food, coffee, clothing, and much more to help you connect and explore the city.

Learn: Black American History

The guides below include larger lists and deeper dives into their respective topics, but have not been updated since 2021. The materials in this section are therefore additional materials that have either been acquired since these guides were created or were not included originally. None of these lists are meant to be exhaustive, but rather as opportunities for researchers to make new discoveries and connections in their educational journey. We welcome suggestions for additions to our collection via email: flaxman@saic.edu.

SAIC Research Guides

Juneteenth 2021 Virtual Pop-Up Library [Research Guide]
Our Juneteenth Virtual Pop-Up Library offers an extensive list of electronic and physical resources focused on Black history.
Anti-Racism and Black Lives Matter Virtual Pop-Up Library [Research Guide]
Our revised Anti-Racism and Black Lives Matter Virtual Pop-Up Library has two sections with helpful content about Black History: Black Lives Matter Resources and Black Experience + History Resources
Learn & Unlearn: Anti-racism Resource Guide - Cultural Competence [Research Guide]
The Cultural Competence series includes eight lessons on a variety of related topics including: Lesson 1: What is the BLM movement?, Lesson 6: Juneteenth, and Lesson 8: MLK Day.

Databases

Black Studies in Video (North America) This link opens in a new window
Includes documentaries on leading artists, writers, musicians, playwrights, and performers. Includes the Hatch-Billops Collection, archive of primary and secondary materials focused on black American art, drama, and literature. Plus the SNCC archives, the NAACP archives, and archives from select Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Black Thought & Culture This link opens in a new window
Provides approximately 100,000 pages of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to the present. The collection is intended for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
Black Voices on the City This link opens in a new window
This guide attempts to collect and curate the contributions of Black planners, scholars, artists, writers, organizers and practitioners from a variety of fields that are concerned with the process of organizing space and place in the urban environment.
Collections on Black Experiences This link opens in a new window
The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) gathers information about archival collections held by member organizations that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The searchable database includes records about collections that were processed or surveyed through the BMRC's Survey Initiative and Color Curtain Processing Project programs, as well as finding aids contributed from our members about relevant materials in their repositories.
Ebony Magazine Archive (Google Books) This link opens in a new window
Many issues digitized cover-to-cover from 1959 to 2008.