Black History Month: Highlights from the Collection

During National African American History Month, we recognize these champions of justice and the sacrifices they made to bring us to this point, we honor the contributions of African Americans since our country's beginning, and we recommit to reaching for a day when no person is judged by anything but the content of their character.

From the Revolutionary War through the abolitionist movement, to marches from Selma to Montgomery and across America today, African Americans have remained devoted to the proposition that all of us are created equal, even when their own rights were denied. As we commemorate the victories won by men and women who believed in the idea of a just and fair America, we remember that, throughout history, our success has been driven by bold individuals who were willing to speak out and change the status quo.  Enjoy these materials from our collection that exemplify the strength and spirit of Black History Month. 

East Brunswick Public Library is rich with educational and entertaining resources related to this subject.  We have a nice selection of informative documentary films focusing on the civil rights movement such as Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, I Am Not Your Negro, and Martin Luther King-related docs like Been to the Mountaintop and King: Man of Peace in a Time of War.  Some standout drama films like Betty & Coretta, Mississippi Burning, and Malcolm X round out this collection. 

We also have a wealth of music-themed books and DVDs.  Jazz is heavily featured in this area, with such offerings as the Ken Burns documentary miniseries Jazz, Jazz: A History of America's Music, Dreamgirls, Louis Armstrong: Live in '59, the Miles Davis biography It's About That Time, the Billie Holiday biography Lady Sings the Blues, and the Aretha Franklin biography Respect. 

Completing this collection is a nice array of fiction books that celebrate African American heritage and culture.  Another Brooklyn follows a formative time when childhood gives way to adulthood—the promise and peril of growing up—and exquisitely renders a powerful and fleeting friendship that united four young lives of growing up in New York City.  Invisible Man is a literary classic, one that can be read, studied, and pored over for months.  It focuses on a nameless narrator growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.  Darktown is a modern standout in African American literature as it makes for an intricately plotted crime saga that explores the timely issues of race, law enforcement, and the uneven scales of justice.  These excellent titles are merely an introduction to the incredible selection of CDs, films, and fiction and non-fiction books that commemorate Black History Month.  Enjoy!