What Should Your Company do for Black History Month 2023?
Black History Month 2023
"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” —Carter G. Woodson
Starting last year at Textio , we started celebrating our monthly history and heritage months through facts, film, food, and fun. It has allowed us to have deeper explorations of heritage months and awareness days beyond just acknowledgment.
It has gone so well, I wanted to share what Textio is doing for Black History Month and share our framework to see if it might work for you as well! Thank you Gordon Louie for all of your help on this project. What I am sharing for you is adapted from what Gordon shared internally with other Textios.
We learned a lot from running this pilot program. First, we learned, people are really busy. As a result, we added asynchronous options to that people can participate on their own schedule and still have a group discussion online. We also shortened some of the options.
We also learned that by working with Caroo , not only could we support black businesses by purchasing the BHM boxes, we can give to causes such as social justice as well as feed the hungry. It helps 3 causes in one!
Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), originally founded by Carter G. Woodson, selects a theme for Black History Month. What began as a weeklong celebration in the 1920s (to celebrate the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass) evolved into a monthlong celebration in the 1960s, partly as a result of the Civil Rights Movement.
This year’s theme centers Black Resistance and how oppression in all forms has been actively resisted through legal, political, and social challenges.
Facts
Read more about the 2023 BHM theme on the ASALH website.
“Let us think of Black History Month the way our nation honors its greatest moments and greatest people. Let us appreciate Black History Month in a similar way—as when our government sets aside a month or day, thereby giving it a special meaning for all Americans. No one should think that Black History is confined to the month of February when evidence to the contrary appears everywhere and in every month.”
Listen in on this webinar on Wednesday (2/8/23) 9am PT/11am CT/Noon ET about the current exhibit, The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy , at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Maryland.
As Stonewall writes, “Black History Month is an opportunity for us to highlight the work and contributions of Black LGBTQ+ people, which are too often forgotten and erased from history.” Check out With Pride , a resource page on BlackPast that is dedicated to presenting the history of people of African descent who are also part of LGBTQ+ communities, highlighting the many contributions these individuals have made to both African American history and culture and American history and culture.
Films and Discussion
Hidden Figures—Monday (2/13) 12pm PT
As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.
Is That Black Enough for You?!?—Wednesday (2/22) 12pm PT
From celebrated writer and film historian Elvis Mitchell, Is That Black Enough for You?!? is both a documentary and deeply personal essay. The film examines the craft and power of cinema from a perspective often overlooked: the African American contribution to films released from the landmark era of the 70s. It is a deep dive into the impact that point of view had on movies, as well as popular culture, and serves as a love letter to film, posing questions that have never been asked, let alone answered. Crucial artistic voices, including director Charles Burnett, Samuel L. Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Laurence Fishburne, Zendaya and others, offer their distinctive prism on the creators and films that dazzled and inspired. The film provides insight into the history of Black representation going back to the earliest days of cinema, and the cultural impact of witnessing unapologetic Blackness.
领英推荐
(Asynchronous viewing) True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight For Equality
(For asynchronous opportunities, we created a Slack channel called #flash -BHM23-Discussion)
In the last half-century, America has become the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world, authorized the execution of hundreds of condemned prisoners and continued to struggle to recover from a long history of racial injustice. For more than three decades, Alabama public interest attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has advocated on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned, seeking to eradicate racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. An intimate portrait of this remarkable man, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality follows his struggle to create greater fairness in the system and shows how racial injustice emerged, evolved and continues to threaten the country, challenging viewers to confront it.
Food:
Everyone loves "Southern" food, but until recently few acknowledged the heavy influences of soul food, which itself was born of necessity from West African cuisine and slavery. Join writer and Southern food historian,?Deah Berry Mitchell , as she shares how West Africa impacted some of the South's most glorified foods. Cornbread & Collard Greens?is part family history, part modern soul food cookbook.
Click on the link above to register for this event. Can't make the date? A link to the recorded talk will be sent to those who register. The video will be accessible for two weeks.
Fun:
Caroo Black History Month Box
Check your inboxes to redeem a box in honor of Black History Month with limited-time curated gifts featuring Black-founded brands. This BHM curation will let you explore products from three brands including @Joe + Monroe, Hill and River Collection, and Cloth and Paper.
Black History Month Code Switch Playlist
I’ve listened to NPR podcasts on-and-off for years, but over the course of 2020, I really got back into more of them. If you’re looking for some insightful conversations, Code Switch is a great podcast to learn more about hidden histories and important historical figures. This curated selection’s got stories on everything from sports activism to the Black Panther Party, to one woman's fight for respect that went all the way to the Supreme Court!
(Asynchronous option) Reading & Discussion
To kick off our asynchronous read & discuss option, I’ve linked 10 poems (is anyone surprised?? ??) below, selected for their connection to the theme of Black Resistance this year. Please read one, multiple ones, or all of them, and join in the discussion on Slack and/or on Zoom!