Black History Month History • Culture • Perspectives

This month, we honor and recognize African Americans' diverse and rich history. We will celebrate throughout February through in-person events, staff-curated booklists, and a collection of online resources and exhibits.

Black History in the Tampa Bay Area

Upcoming Events

Black History Playlist

Watch recordings of previous Black History programs.

Watch playlist

Our Lives, Our Legacies: The Hillsborough Black Experience

The goal of this online collection is to record and preserve the stories of African American residents in Hillsborough County.

St. Peter Claver 9th grade graduation class of 1948

This project began when the library was awarded a grant from 'StoryCorps @ your library,' a national program designed to encourage multi-format public programming on broad themes of oral narrative, local history and heritage.

View the collection

Black History Month Video Collection

Stream African American cinema.

Watch on Kanopy

Gale in Context: Biography

Explore hundreds of featured Black Americans.

Explore biographies

Black Freedom Struggle

This curated selection of primary sources is designed for learning about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans.

Black Freedom Struggle

Black Newspaper Collection

An archive of articles essential to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts, spanning 1893 to 2005.

Black Newspaper Collection

Black Life in America

The experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media.

Black Life in America

African American Heritage

A comprehensive mix of resources, records exclusively devoted to African American family history research, and tools was created in partnership with leading genealogists.

African American Heritage

“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.”

— James Baldwin