With February coming to a close, we’d like to highlight all the recommendations from the desks and homes of our staff members for Black History Month. In the past month, we shared books, movies, podcasts and more on our social media accounts to uplift Black lives, stories, and culture. Our picks are below and listed by category:
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGee
- Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Lawson
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
- The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Hannah Nikole Jones
- “Your Silence Will Not Protect You” by Audre Lorde
- “Now & Then” by Gil Scott-Heron
- Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
- Code Switch by NPR
- Unerased Black Women’s Stories
- Inner City Blues by H.E.R.
Week Four: Movies & Documentaries
- Abbott Elementary [sitcom]
- 13th [documentary]
- Reconstruction: America After the Civil War [documentary]
- Passing [film]
President Jocelyn Fyre’s pick: Democracy, Race, & Justice: The Speeches and Writings of Sadie T. M. Alexander [biography]
BONUS: Reproductive and Health Justice feature: Dr. Leith Mullings, a professor of anthropology who passed away in 2020. She was best known for her research of Black women’s health and reproductive lives through an intersectional and historical lens. Dr. Mullings conducted research and shared her findings on how biological facts are inextricably linked to politics and the economy.
Finally, we can’t forget to highlight the history that was made last week. On Friday, February 23, 2022, President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She is the first Black woman to be nominated to the nation’s highest court. In the words of our organization’s president Jocelyn C. Frye:
“Black women have always embraced both the ideal and the hard work of seeking justice through the courts — even when the Constitution defined us as less than fully human. From 1781 onward, when an enslaved Black woman sought her freedom through the courts, to the late 19th century, when the first Black woman won admission to the bar, to the courageous legal champions who fashioned legal strategies to dismantle segregation. Black women lawyers have been on the frontlines of many of the nation’s most important legal developments — from the fight to desegregate schools, to developing the legal theories that paved the way for women’s equality in the law, and more. Too many Black women have been overlooked or denied consideration for the highest federal courts and it is on this legacy that Judge Jackson’s nomination stands today.”
As we move forward to March and celebrate Women’s History Month, let’s continue to honor Black women and all women who have uniquely shaped the American experience and our world.
