Black History Month

Black History Month was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Earlier this year history was made when Barack Obama took office as the President of the United States, America's first African-American president.

You can learn more about Black History Month by using the links below.

President Barack Obama

Books at your Library
Black History Websites African-American Biographies
Black History Month For Kids Local/ State/National Resources

Black History Websites

The most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the events which have shaped African American and African history and culture.
You will need a library card for remote access.

Studying history, arts & culture, race & society, and profiles. From PBS.org.

America's journey through slavery is presented in four parts. From PBS.org.

From History.com, the official website of The History Channel

A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture

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African American Biographies

An A to Z list of notable African American Inventors.

Focuses on performers and composers and on the vocal music forms they influenced, especially opera, art songs and Negro spirituals composed for concert performance.

A Notable Biography from the Encyclopedia of World Biography.

From Biography.com, the biography branch of The History Channel

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For Kids

A kids page from PBS.org.

From Time for Kids, a division of Time Magazine

Explore the contributions of African-Americans with cross-curricular lessons, quizzes, activities and more.

Download printables and coloring pages for kids, take quizzes, find activities, and read articles about the historic struggle for civil rights.

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Local/ State/National Resources

African American in the U.S. Army

For more than two hundred years, African-Americans have participated in every conflict in United States history. They have not only fought bravely the common enemies of the United States but have also had to confront the individual and institutional racism of their countrymen.

— Lt. Col. [Ret] Michael Lee Lanning, author, "The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell."

American Memory African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
This Special Presentation of the Library of Congress exhibition, The African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, showcases the Library's incomparable African-American collections.
Fayetteville State University
The Archives and Special Collections Department of the Charles W. Chestnutt Library at FSU presents a rich history of the African American experience in education here in Fayetteville.
North American Slave Narratives
UNC Chapel Hill Documenting the American South. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves and some significant fictionalized slave narratives published in English before 1920.