Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the observance was initiated by Carter G. Woodson in 1926 to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization. The celebration has expanded from a week to now be the month of February.

How will you honor and learn about the history of Black people in the United States this month? Whiting Library has some ideas for you! We made up a great list of books to check out from our collection written by black authors, both non-fiction and fiction. You can download the list here! If you like to judge a book by it’s cover (who doesn’t!), you can also see some pictures of these books on display right here:

The Whiting Library Book Club is also reading a Pulitzer Prize winning book called The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. If you’re interested in getting together with other book lovers to discuss the book, we will be meeting virtually on Zoom on Tuesday, February 16th at 6pm to share. If you need a copy of the book, let us know and we’ll check one out to you! Here’s more information about the Book Club event.

The Arts & Crafts Club for February will focus on crafts inspired by the incredible artist Alma Woodsey Thomas. You can check out the projects included in this month’s take-and-make craft bag here. If you’d like some ideas on how to create more artwork inspired by Alma Woodsey Thomas, don’t miss the latest edition of the Crayon Tribune Newsletter in which Carrie has included some truly captivating links to videos of people making simple yet beautiful art projects. Just watching the videos is enough to put you in a relaxed state of mind. Who doesn’t need that these days!

You can also find a link to books for Black History Month in the youth department here. We have everything from picture books, to biographies, to young adult novels. Check ’em out!