A.K. Smiley Public Library Blog

Serving the City of Redlands, California since 1894

DID YOU KNOW? Carla Hayden is our current and 14th Librarian of Congress, becoming the first woman and the first African American to lead our national library.

"We are not makers of history; we are made by history." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“…in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, ‘Here I am -- read me.’” – Maya Angelou

Explore the Library in Celebration of Black History Month

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The staff of A.K. Smiley Public Library has gathered a list of our books and DVDs with which to “honor, remember, and inspire” in celebrating Black History Month. Most of the items are new, but a few are older and may be just new-to-you. We hope you’ll take a moment to explore and possibly learn a little something you didn’t know about Black history.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a son of formerly enslaved parents, was the one who embarked on the establishment of Black History Month. He was a teacher and school administrator who in 1912 became the second African American, after W.E.B. Du Bois, to earn a PhD from Harvard University. In February 1926 he launched the precursor of the celebration with “Negro History Week,” designated for the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Dr. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Each year the Association, which continues to support Dr. Woodson’s cause, assigns a theme to the celebration. The theme for 2021 is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity” — ideas to ponder as we read.

Please refer to previous blog post Celebrating Black Authors and Black Lives for additional titles. Take a look too at our extensive Catalog for older items on the subject, as well as those for children and young adults, and check them out through our Books to Go program. Also, don’t forget our eLibrary!

And finally, for more ways in which to celebrate Black history, register for the Heritage Room’s Black History Month webinar series every Saturday at 11am in the month of February.

Coming up:

February 20 – “Black Voice News and the History of the Black Press” by Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds

February 27 – “Hidden in Plain Sight: African Americans in the Library’s Historic Collections” with Archivist Dr. Nathan Gonzales

Also, we encourage you to visit these sites, the Library of Congress at  https://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) at https://www.pbs.org/articles/2021/02/celebrate-black-history-month-2021/.

­­­Autobiographies, Biographies, and Memoirs

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Politics, Civil Rights, Law

Sciences, Philosophy, Journalism, Language, Mathematics, Technology, Performing Arts

Social Sciences

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