Research Guides: Black History: Guide

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Work It, Girl: Mae Jemison : Blast off Into Space Like

The Legend of Kobe Bryant : Basketball's Modern Superstar

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine

May We Forever Stand : A History of the Black National Anthem

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

Resistance Reimagined: Black Women's Critical Thought As Survival

Dreaming Out Loud: African American Novelists at Work

Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage

Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

The Collected Works of Ida B. Wells-Barnett : The Complete Works PergamonMedia

Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers

Privilege and Prejudice: The Life of a Black Pioneer

A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America

Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner: Boxing in the Shadow of the Global Color Line

Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix

The artist portrait series : images of contemporary African American artists

Writing the future of Black America : literature of the hip-hop generation

Unseen : unpublished black history from the New York Times Photo Archives

South of Pico : African American artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s

L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present

Riot and Remembrance : the Tulsa race war and its legacy

Maternal Metaphors of Power in African American Women's Literature

Lift Every Voice ; : the history of African American music

The sounds of slavery : discovering African American history through songs, sermons, and speech

Out of the shadows : a biographical history of African American athletes

Creating their own image : the history of African-American women artists

Colored no more : reinventing black womanhood in Washington, D.C.

Denzel Washington : Academy award-winning actor

Missing pages : black journalists of modern America : an oral history

Created equal : the lives and ideas of Black American innovators

Style & status : selling beauty to African American women, 1920-1975

A small nation of people : W. E. B. Du Bois and African American portraits of progress

On the shoulders of giants : my journey through the Harlem Renaissance

Remembering Jim Crow : African Americans tell about life in the segregated South

Along Martin Luther King : travels on Black America's main street

The art of Black American women : works of twenty-four artists of the twentieth century

Can I Touch Your Hair? : Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist

We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument About Afrocentrism

The First Black Actors on the Great White Way

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After

African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture

From Films On Demand database:

Interview with John Lewis Fifty years ago, 23-year-old John Lewis raised his voice to a crowd of more than 200,000 people at a protest march that would come to represent "the best of America." PBS NewsHour correspondent Gwen Ifill talks to the congressman about what motivated him to become a young civil rights leader and the current state of civil rights and equality in America. Original broadcast date: August 27, 2013
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson—A Film Directed by Ken Burns Jack Johnson, whose dominance over his white opponents spurred furious debates and race riots in the early 20th century, enters the ring once again in this provocative PBS documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns. The Emmy Award–winning two-part film follows Johnson’s journey from his beginnings as the son of former slaves, to his entry into the brutal world of professional boxing, where he was able to battle his way up through the ranks and become the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World. The biography of Jack Johnson is accompanied by more than 50 photographs and draws from a wealth of new material. Distributed by PBS Distribution. 2-part series, 120 minutes each.
Building a Movement During the 2018 midterms, women of color run for political office in record numbers. Candidates and organizers mobilize to expand the electorate, inspire voters to turn out and make history in the process. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Claiming Power As a movement of candidates and organizers inspire voters to turn out for the 2018 midterm elections, voter suppression in Georgia casts a shadow on Stacey Abrams’ history-making run for governor. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
The Civil Rights Movement A part of the series America in the 20th Century. Anyone who thinks the civil rights movement began and ended with Martin Luther King Jr. will discover a new, eye-opening view of history in this program. It reveals a long-running struggle for racial equality starting with Civil War– and Reconstruction-era events, moving through the blight of Jim Crow and the formation of the NAACP and other groups, and depicting the drama of King’s movement in varied, evolving phases. The work of Malcolm X, the rise of the Black Power movement, and the future of America’s ongoing equality battles are also examined. Correlates to standards from the National Council for the Social Studies. A viewable/printable instructor’s guide is available online. (84 minutes)
The Promised Land Series Compared favourably to Roots, this classic series was nominated for several Emmys and a CableACE award and was a winner of the Best Series at the Chicago Film Festival. Based on Nicholas Lemann's international bestseller, it follows the 1940-1960 migration of more than five million African Americans from the fields and farms of the Deep South for a new life in the big cities of the North, principally Chicago. Those brave men and women recount their lifetime experiences against a soundtrack of jazz and blues.
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954–1985 Produced by Blackside, Eyes on the Prize tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, and a Television Critics Association Award, Eyes on the Prize is the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America. The 14-part series recounts the fight to end decades of discrimination and segregation. It is the story of the people— young and old, male and female, northern and southern—who, compelled by a meeting of conscience and circumstance, worked to eradicate a world where whites and blacks could not go to the same school, ride the same bus, vote in the same election, or participate equally in society. It was a world in which peaceful demonstrators were met with resistance and brutality—in short, a reality that is now nearly incomprehensible to many young Americans. Through contemporary interviews and historical footage, Eyes on the Prize traces the civil rights movement from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Voting Rights Act; from early acts of individual courage through the flowering of a mass movement and its eventual split into factions. Julian Bond, political leader and civil rights activist, narrates.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
In Search of the Dream: A Story of the African American Experience Series This “living documentary” series examines the social, political, cultural, and economic life of African Americans from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619, through the civil rights movement and its aftermath, to the present. Combining documentary footage, interviews, personal testimonials, and analyses of social and political developments, the series provides personal and historical perspective on the African-American experience. Topics addressed include the impact of slavery on African Americans, the African cultural heritage, the legislation and enforcement of civil rights, efforts to improve the quality of life in African-American communities, and the current status of race relations in the U.S. Hosted by the late Arthur Ashe. An ABC News Production. 6-part series, 46-47 minutes each.
Black History compilation Videos and clips from Films On Demand database.
Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten

From Swank Digital Campus database:

After accessing the Swank Digital Campus database, go to the search box on top and enter the titles below. Enjoy the films!

Selma Civil-rights activists march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery to secure voting rights for black Americans in this docudrama, which focuses on the actions of Martin Luther King Jr.
Fruitvale Station Drama centered on the tragic shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area father who was gunned down by a BART subway officer on New Year's Day in 2009, and whose murder shocked the nation after being captured on camera by his fellow passengers.
Black Panther
The Pursuit of Happyness A failed salesman tries to care for his young son after they lose their home.
The Great Debaters True story of a debate team at an all-black college in the 1930s. Denzel Washington directed and stars. Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Jermaine Williams.
BlacKkKlansman A black detective sets out to infiltrate the Colorado chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of his Jewish colleague. In the midst of the 1970s civil rights movement, they risk their lives to obtain insider information on the violent organization.
Do the Right Thing Racial tensions grow in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the summer.
Sorry to Bother You A black telemarketer reaps professional success after adopting a "white voice," but soon begins to examine his conscience.
Get Out In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift) and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.
Creed Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his famous father, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, who died before he was born. Still, there’s no denying that boxing is in his blood, so Adonis heads to Philadelphia, the site of Apollo Creed’s legendary match with a tough upstart named Rocky Balboa. Once in the City of Brotherly Love, Adonis tracks Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) down and asks him to be his trainer. Despite his insistence that he is out of the fight game for good, Rocky sees in Adonis the strength and determination he had known in Apollo—the fierce rival who became his closest friend. Agreeing to take him on, Rocky trains the young fighter, even as the former champ is battling an opponent more deadly than any he faced in the ring. With Rocky in his corner, it isn’t long before Adonis gets his own shot at the title…but can he develop not only the drive but also the heart of a true fighter, in time to get into the ring?
A Ballerina's Tale Black ballerina Misty Copeland is profiled in this documentary, which explores her career, her recovery from a serious injury and the lack of diversity in the world of dance.

UMOJA Program at Chaffey
Black Lives Matter Guide
National Museum of African American History and Culture The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
California African American Museum How will you commemorate—and further—Black liberation?
African American History from Umbra Search umbrasearch.org brings together hundreds of thousands digitized materials from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country. Umbra Search celebrates the vital efforts of the individuals and institutions that have helped to preserve and make accessible online hundreds of thousands of pieces of African American history and culture, and we pay homage to the Umbra Society of the early 1960s, a renegade group of Black writers and poets who helped create the Black Arts Movement.
California Cultures: African Americans
The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.
99th anniversary of Tulsa massacre highlights Juneteenth, murders of Black people across America O.W. Gurley, a wealthy Black entrepreneur from Arkansas, moved to racially segregated Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1906 and bought 40 acres of land. On it, he built three, two-story buildings and five homes for Black people who were not allowed to live on the white side of town.
Black History Today

Juneteenth is the oldest known US celebration of the abolition of the chattel slave system, and the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. Celebrated on June 19, it became an official national holiday known as Juneteenth National Independence Day by law on June 17, 2021.

Check out the Celebrating Juneteenth guide to learn more.

Spring 2025 Events

Monday, February 3 – Black History Month kick-off with music activities, resources and food (while supplies last) in the Rancho Cucamonga Campus quad – Noon to 2 p.m.
Wednesday, February 19 – Black Excellence Panel via Zoom – 6 p.m.
Thursday, February 20 – Chaffey Flix screening of “King Richard” in Student Life – 4 to 6 p.m.
February 26-28 – Hip Hop Studies Summit – Registration and event information available soon

Black History kick off celebration event Black History Month 2025 Events

Past events!

For the most current event, visit the Center for Culture and Social Justice. For past recordings of the events, visit Chaffey College Facebook Past Live Videos.

Black History Month Events Calendar 2024

Black History Month Kickoff: Thursday, February 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Sports Center – This event will include music, a barbecue hosted by the Chaffey Car Club, games and a resource fair.
Movie Event: Judas and the Black Messiah: Thursday, February 7 at Noon – CAA-211 – View the Oscar-nominated film that delves into the betrayal of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
Know Yourself: A Dialogue on Black Identities: Thursday, February 15 at 4:30 p.m. – Zoom and WH-161. A conversation to explore the various cultural and genetic manifestations of Blackness, and how we define our own unique Black identities.
Black Joy Yoga with Dat Yoga Dude: Thursday, February 20 at 12:30 p.m. – Zoom and CAA Dance Studio
Black Excellence Panel: Thursday, February 22 at 6 p.m. – Zoom – An intimate conversation with leading Black professionals who discuss ways they have navigated obstacles and devised strategies in order to excel in careers in historically-excluded fields.
5^th Annual Hip Hop Studies Summit: February 28 to March 1. Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of hip hop, this multi-day event will include workshops, panel discussions and a virtual art exhibition by the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.