LibGuides: Black History: Welcome

Black History Month 2024

Bowman Library focus for the 2024 Celebration of Black History Month:

Graphic Novels and Non-Fiction by Black Authors

Graphic Novels represent a deep well of creative writing and illustration. Graphic Novels can cover any genre and any narrative. They encompass literature, history, memoir, investigative journalism, and cultural critique. There are some beautiful adaptations of literature in our collection, such as Octavia Butler's Kindred, as well as personal narratives such as Pulitzer Prize winning author Darrin Bell's The Talk. There are many more in our collection, both as physical copies and ebooks. Please check them out!

The Talk by Darrin Bell
ISBN: 9781250805140
Publication Date: 2023-06-06
While coming of age in Los Angeles--and finding a voice through cartooning--Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbors, and police officers and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.
March: Book One by John Lewis; Andrew Aydin; Nate Powell (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781603093002
Publication Date: 2013-08-13
Congressman John Lewis is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole).
LaGuardia Deluxe Edition by Nnedi Okorafor; Tana Ford (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781506728599
Publication Date: 2022-02-22
On a planet Earth bursting with integrated extraterrestrial life, pregnant doctor Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka is fleeing Nigeria under mysterious conditions. Her fiance doesn't know she's left, and she's smuggling an illegal, sentient plant into NYC. There, she'll be thrown into a vibrant immigrant community of humans and aliens, fighting for social justice and facing her past and her unexpected future. "With Laguardia, Nnedi Okorafor continues her work of bringing a unique, insightful Black African science fiction aesthetic to audiences." - Black Nerd Problems
Malcolm X by Andrew Helfer (Editor); Randy DuBurke (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780809095049
Publication Date: 2006-11-14
With the thoroughly researched and passionately drawn Malcolm X, Helfer and award-winning artist Randy DuBurke capture Malcolm Little's extraordinary transformation from a black youth beaten down by Jim Crow America into Malcolm X, the charismatic, controversial, and doomed national spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
Birth of a Nation by Aaron McGruder; Reginald Hudlin; Kyle Baker (Illustrator)
ISBN: 1400083168
Publication Date: 2005-02-22
A scathingly funny graphic novel from a veritable dream team of collaborators, premised on the question: what would happen if East St. Louis seceded from the union? Written by one of America's leading political satirists and a pioneering black filmmaker, this takes the botched election of 2000 and turns it into an absurd conclusion - this is political humor at its best.
Kindred: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler; John Jennings (Illustrator); Damian Duffy (Adapted by)
ISBN: 9781419709470
Publication Date: 2017-01-10
Octavia E. Butler's bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, continues to draw in new readers with its deep exploration of the violence and loss of humanity caused by slavery in the United States, and its complex and lasting impact on the present day. Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings. The intersectionality of race, history, and the treatment of women addressed within the original work remain critical topics in contemporary dialogue, both in the classroom and in the public sphere.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds; Ibram X. Kendi
ISBN: 9780316453677
Publication Date: 2020-03-10
This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future.

History of Black History Month

From the Association for the Study of African American Life and History:

"Today, it is clear that blacks have significantly impacted the development of the social, political, and economic structures of the United States and the world. Credit for the evolving awareness of the true place of blacks in history can, in large part, be bestowed on one man, Carter G. Woodson."

Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication outlets for black scholars with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History (1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which garners a popular public appeal. In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the black experience. ASALH views the promotion of Black History Month as one of the most important components of advancing Dr.Woodson’s legacy."