This month we are celebrating Black History Month! This years theme is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, which aims to highlight those people and communities who have resisted racism, lead social change, and stood firm in their pride for the Black community in Britain.
Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, the Editor in Chief of the Black History Month UK Magazine, wrote in this years issue that “The need to stand firm is especially clear against a backdrop of rising nationalism and systemic inequalities… Yet the story of power in Black history is not only about struggle — it is also about resilience and pride.” To read more of Inko-Tariah’s thoughts, and learn about Black History Month, go to their website, here.
Our physical display takes material from the History Faculty collection and tackles a range of eras, with a focus on resistance, liberation in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Books on the display above, from left to right:
Making the revolution global : black radicalism and the British socialist movement before decolonisation by Theo Williams | Police power and black people by Derek Humphry | Black for a cause– not just because : the case of the “Oval 4” and the story it tells of Black Power in 1970s Britain by Winston N. Trew | Slaves to fashion : black dandyism and the styling of black diasporic identity by Monica L. Miller | Ambivalent affinities : a political history of Blackness and homosexuality after World War II by Jennifer Dominique Jones | There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The cultural politics of race and nation by Paul Gilroy | We were there by Lanre Bakare | Britons through negro spectacles by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor | Black voices on Britain : selected writings edited by Hakim Adi | Black England : a forgotten Georgian history by Gretchen Gerzina | Rhodes must fall : the struggle to decolonise the racist heart of empire by the Rhodes Must Fall Movement (Oxford) | A black boy at Eton by Dillibe Onyeama | Black Liverpool : the early history of Britain’s oldest Black community, 1730-1918 by Roy Costello | The struggle is eternal : Gloria Richardson and black liberation by Joseph R. Fitzgerald | Black Tommies : British soldiers of African descent in the First World War by Ray Costello | The motherland calls : Britain’s black servicemen & women, 1939-45 by Stephen Bourne | The other special relationship : race, rights, and riots in Britain and the United States edited by Robin D.G. Kelley and Stephen G.N. Tuck
Accessing these e-resource materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)
As part of Black History Month, Oxford University will be holding their annual lecture, this year given by Dr José Lingna Nafafé on the topic of Lourenço da Silva Mendonça early abolitionists. Please check out the website here for more information and to book tickets.
