Celebrating Black History Month
This Black History Month we celebrate the strength, resiliance, and achievement of Black communities in the Washington, DC area and beyond. Read on for a list of books on topics including the fight against segregation in education; jazz music; the impact of urban change on Black language; and much more.
Dirt Don't Burn by Edwin Washington Society CEO Larry Roeder and special editor Barry Harrelson is the inspiring, true story of a Black community that sheds new light on the history of segregation and inequity in American education.
"Let Us Go Free" by Xavier University professor C. Walker Gollar is a vivid and disquieting narrative of Jesuit slaveholding and its historical relationship with Jesuit universities in the United States.
Blacks and Jews in America by Harvard Divinity School professor Terrence Johnson and Georgetown University professor Jacques Berlinerblau is a Black-Jewish dialogue that lifts a veil on these groups’ unspoken history, shedding light on the challenges and promises facing American democracy from its inception to the present.
Between Freedom and Equality by Barbara Boyle Torrey and Clara Myrick Green is an original history of six generations of an African American family living in Washington, DC.
The Black Side of the River by University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Jessi Grieser is an insightful exploration of the impact of urban change on Black culture, identity, and language.
Black Georgetown Remembered reveals how Georgetown's little-known Black heritage shaped a Washington, DC, community long associated with white power and privilege.
DC Jazz by Maurice Jackson and Blair Ruble offers readers a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history.
The Capital of Basketball by John McNamara is a celebration of DC area high school hoops that uncovers the turmoil in the lives of the players and area residents as they dealt with prejudice, educational inequities, and politics.
Facing Georgetown's History by Georgetown University Adam Rothman and Middlebury College professor Elsa Mendoza is a compilation of documents that, taken together, provides essential insight into Georgetown University's past involvement in the slave trade—and how we can reckon with that history today.