Celebrating Black History Month at the Libraries

Celebrating Black History Month at the Libraries

Feb. 14, 2022
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University Libraries is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting history, books and collections that include and represent Black communities. 

Tap into Special Collections to explore Black history and life 

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Black soldier looking at camera

Special Collections invites you to explore the Papers of John Robert Carter

He was a member of the segregated, African American Company C of the 25th Infantry Regiment.

After serving in Hawaii, Carter and the 25th were transferred to Arizona.

Learn more about his collections, which includes military records, photographs, and postcards from 1916-1926. 

 

 

 

Enjoy books from The University of Arizona Press

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Black Girl Magic book cover

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Them Goon Rules book cover

The University of Arizona Press, one of our departments, is the premier publisher of academic, regional, and literary works in the state of Arizona. 

Here are two books to add to your "to read later" list!

Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First-Century Acts of Self-Definition, edited by Julia S. Jordan-Zachery and Duchess Harris, shows how Black girls and women foster community, counter invisibility, engage in restorative acts, and create spaces for freedom. Intersectional and interdisciplinary, the contributions in this volume bridge generations and collectively push the boundaries of Black feminist thought.

Them Goon Rules, Marquis Bey’s debut collection, is an un-rulebook, a long-form essayistic sermon that meditates on how Blackness and nonnormative gender impact and remix everything we claim to know. A series of essays that reads like a critical memoir, this work queries the function and implications of politicized Blackness, Black feminism, and queerness. 

Learn about Tucson's first elected African American council member 

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In 1979, Dr. Charles “Chuck” Ford became the first African American elected to the Tucson City Council.

Browse Dr. Charles Ford Papers, a digital collection in Special Collections that includes newspaper clippings, photographs, and scrapbooks of Dr. Ford’s service on the Tucson City Council.

The collection also includes materials from Ford's 1991 campaign for mayor.

Uncover student stories from University of Arizona yearbooks

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two men standing on stair case

We found inspiration from the Pyle brothers in our 1974 yearbook. Identical twins Ray Vaughn Pyle II and Vincent J. Pyle came to the University of Arizona from Washington D.C. in 1968, and became involved in the Black Student Union on campus.

Vaughn became president of the Black Student Union in 1972, and both brothers were members of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. 

If you're interested in learning more about what was happening on campus decades ago, take a look at our University of Arizona yearbooks digital collection. You can flip through digitized yearbooks created by scanning original copies that were housed in Special Collections.

The oldest yearbook dates back to 1903, and the last yearbook was issued in 2005.

About the University of Arizona cultural logos 

The University’s heritage dates back to 1885 and is rich in diversity and character. To recognize and celebrate our distinct cultures, a dedicated team of students, faculty, staff, campus cultural groups and alumni collaborated to create the first official University of Arizona Cultural Logos.

Each cultural logo includes three distinct parts: cultural icons, the Wildcat brand mark, and a title that represents the expression or celebration of each culture. 

Learn more about the cultural logos and the icons