The Future is Now – Black History Month

by | Feb 21, 2021 | Bulletin Article

It is February so that means it is Black History Month.  Here are some ideas for resources that you can check out.
  1. Today’s sermon included the story of the slave in Boston who helped introduce the concept of inoculation into western medicine. Onesimus, the slave of Boston Pastor Cotton Mather, helped his owner discover a pathway for helping people to avoid Smallpox. You can read the story of Onesimus here.  https://www.history.com/news/smallpox-vaccine-onesimus-slave-cotton-mather
  2. The Future is Now: The theme for Canada’s recognition of Black History Month this year is “the Future is Now.”  You can check out Canada resources and stories here. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month.html
  3. In the 1850s, in what is now Victoria, Governor James Douglas fought against American expansionism by bringing over hundreds of Black Americans from San Francisco. The legacy of this population is still felt today. See the story here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=B7tvk15vzKU
  1. A video about BC’s Black Pioneers here. https://www.communitystories.ca/v2/bc-black-pioneers_les-pionniers-noirs-de-la-cb/
  1. Click here The British Columbia Black History Awareness Society (BCBHAS) https://bcblackhistory.ca/
  Resources from Dominique Gilliard, Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation produced a list of resources for Black History Month.  The above links are more Canadian and these have a bias toward the United States history. Watch list:
  1. When They See Us (Netflix)
  2. True Justice (HBO—or EJI)
  3. I Am Not Your Negro (Prime)
  4. Banished (documentary)
  5. One Night in Miami (Prime)
  6. Between the World and Me (HBO)
  7. All In: The Fight for Democracy (Prime)
  8. Just Mercy (HBO Max)
  9. Slavery By Another Name (PBS—or YouTube)
  10. The Best of Enemies (Hulu)
  Reading list:
  1. Jesus and the Disinherited
  2. The Color of Compromise
  3. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race
  4. After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging
  5. Rethinking Incarceration
  6. The Warmth of Other Suns
  7. The Cross and the Lynching Tree
  8. In My Grandmother’s House
  9. A Knock at Midnight
  10. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
This is nowhere near an exhaustive list. There are a multitude of other great resources like Reading While Black, Who Will Be a Witness, Becoming, The Souls of Black Folk, The Miseducation of the Negro, & The Parable of the Sower that could very well be on a list like this. But for brevity, here’s a top 10 list of books & viewing for this #BlackHistoryMonth & beyond.

[learn_press_profile]