Africana & Black Studies

To celebrate Black History Month, we’re taking a look at 10 journalists of color telling the stories that are an essential part of the panorama of the U.S. These Black media powerhouses are in addition to our lists from 2018 and 2019.

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides innovative, quality programs and services to its members. The organization advocates on behalf of Black journalists and media professionals in the U.S. and worldwide. NABJ’s membership is more than 4,000 strong and includes emerging journalists, professional journalists, student journalists, journalism educators and media professionals of all kinds.

Black journalists are speaking out because one of the nation’s major political parties and the current presidential administration are providing refuge to white supremacist rhetoric and policies, and our industry’s gatekeepers are preoccupied with seeming balanced, even ordering up glossy profiles of complicit actors. All the while, black and brown lives and livelihoods remain imperiled.

In a news cycle filled with tragedy, much of it disproportionately affecting people of color, Black reporters and editors are reimagining coping strategies.

In January 2021, CNN reporter Sara Sider teared up on air reporting about Covid-19 and her experience witnessing the sheer magnitude of loss, in particular, of Black and Brown lives. Her segment went viral and received praise for its’ vulnerability. Clearly her tears represented the silent experiences of many.

The core of this presentation consists of "stock" arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans. In addition, we offer a smaller selection of historic sound recordings illustrating these songs and many others by the same composers (the arrangements might not necessarily be the same as those on the stocks). Educational materials include short biographies of composers and performers of the time and historical essays.

Explore a selection of the Smithsonian's wide range of collections preserving the material history of African American musical history.

The Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) is a repository for materials covering a wide range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era.

The phrase “black is beautiful” referred to a broad embrace of black culture and identity. It called for an appreciation of the black past as a worthy legacy, and it inspired cultural pride in contemporary black achievements.

Black history is not just for children—adults can learn a great deal from it too. One area in which black history has had a profound impact is pop culture. Let's take a look at some of the ways black history has influenced pop culture.

In the weeks since the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Black-themed cultural media have been having a moment.
Books, music, movies, TV series and podcasts that explore issues of racism and the Black experience are topping charts and being newly showcased on streaming services. Black artists, inspired by what feels like a social movement, are releasing new music and videos that address issues of social justice or celebrate Blackness.

How were slaves represented visually after their emancipation? Join us for a discussion between Amanda Bellows—whose new book American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination grew, in part, out of work she did while at the New-York Historical—and Aston Gonzalez, who’s new book, Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. We hope you can join us for this fascinating program.

An historic overview of African American visual culture.

The fight for racial equality in the nineteenth century played out not only in marches and political conventions but also in the print and visual culture created and circulated throughout the United States by African Americans. Advances in image technologies—daguerreotypes, lithographs, cartes-de-visite, and steam printing presses—enabled people to see and participate in social reform movements in new ways. African American activists seized these opportunities and produced images that advanced campaigns for Black rights. Aston Gonzalez will speak about understudied Black artists who produced images to persuade viewers of the necessity for racial equality, Black political leadership, and freedom from slavery. Their networks of transatlantic patronage and travels to Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa reveal their extensive involvement in the most pressing concerns for Black people in the Atlantic world.