The Claire T. Carney Library celebrates Black and African American History Month while acknowledging that the events of 2020 cast a long shadow. We celebrate the election of Vice President Kamala Harris, and mourn the losses of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many more who were taken too soon to witness such a historic achievement. We honor a past filled with achievements and boundary-breaking while acknowledging that these boundaries were put in place by our nation’s forefathers and elected officials. We celebrate Black excellence, past, present, and future, knowing that there is more work to be done. As Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, says in her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” which she recited during January’s presidential inauguration:

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us

As a library, tangible action often takes the form of the information we choose to highlight, and we are committed to amplifying and celebrating Black voices not only this month, but year-round. Below you’ll find links to a selection of library resources by Black authors and scholars.

Films

• bell hooks – Cultural Criticism and Transformation
  
• Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed
  
• Daughters of the Dust
  
• Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
  
• I Am Not Your Negro
  
• Living Thinkers – An Autobiography of Women in the Ivory Tower
  
• Miss Juneteenth
  
• Moonlight
  
• Soul Food Junkies – A Film About Family, Food & Tradition
  
• Tell Them We are Rising – The Story of Historically Black Colleges & Universities
  
• Whose Streets? – An Unflinching Look at the Ferguson Uprising

eBooks

• Are Prisons Obsolete? – Angela Y. Davis
  
• Black Movements: Performance and Cultural Politics – Soyica Diggs Colbert
  
• Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity – C. Riley Snorton
  
• Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime – Deborah Elizabeth Whaley
  
• Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination – Alondra Nelson
  
• From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity – Miles White
  
• A History of African American Poetry – Lauri Ramey
  
• Infinite Hope : How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul – Anthony Graves
  
• My Culture, My Color, My Self: Heritage, Resilience, and Community in the Lives of Young Adults – Toby S. Jenkins
  
• Not Without Laughter – Langston Hughes
  
• To Make a Poet Black – J. Saunders Redding

The Claire T. Carney library is open to faculty, staff, and students. Our print book Black History Month display is located near the library entrance and includes:

• Freedom is a Constant Struggle – Angela Y. Davis
• Hood Feminism – Mikki Kendall
• Invisible Visits: Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System – Tina K. Sacks
• Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter – Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith
• They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement – Wesley Lowery
• Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America – Joe William Trotter Jr.
• eBooks with no wait from the Boston Public Library

Access even more books with a BPL eCard or via your public library:

• eBooks with no wait from the Boston Public Library
• More information about getting a BPL eCard
• Find a library near you