Black History Month on the web

[Steve Hoffman]

Celebrating Black History Month

Sreenath Sreenivasan 
NY Times 2/9/98


Studying the African-American experience need not be confined to a
four-week period. But February, when Black History Month is
officially observed, is a good time to seek out information on the
World Wide Web, as many sites have highlighted special sections for
visitors. 

"Over the last couple of years, the visibility of sites about the
month has greatly increased," said Joel Dreyfuss, former editor of
Our World News (www.ourworldnews.com), an online newspaper that
offers "news from a black perspective." Dreyfuss, who is now a
senior editor at Fortune magazine, said that the increased presence
went hand-in-hand with the growth of general sites owned and
operated by African-Americans. 

One starting point is San Francisco-based Netnoir (www.netnoir.com),
which bills itself as the "soul of cyberspace." Its spotlight on
Black History Month features a background essay about the origins of
the celebration, as well as profiles of important figures, including
Rosa Parks -- whose refusal to move to the back of the bus helped
start the civil rights movement -- and actor Paul Robeson. There is
also a trivia section that tests and educates at the same time.
Among the questions: Who was the first black to win the Nobel Peace
Prize? 

No, it was not the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Ralph Bunche, the
U.N. under secretary, won the Nobel in 1950 for his mediation of the
1948 Arab-Israeli dispute. 

Naturally, King and his legacy are highly visible on sites that deal
with African-American history. The definitive site is the Martin
Luther King Jr. Papers Project, based at Stanford University
(www-leland.stanford.edu/group/King). It has an extensive collection
of documents by and about King, as well as a link to the King Center
for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. 

Afro-Americ@, the site of Baltimore-based Afro-American Newspapers,
has several exhibits in its online Black History Museum
(www.afroam.org/History/history.html), which has links, photographs
and documents. The site deals with aspects of black history that are
well known, like slavery and the Black Panthers, as well as some
that are not, such as the black reporters who covered battlefronts
in World War II. 

The Encyclopaedia Brittanica site has a guide to black history
(blackhistory.eb.com) that is free until the end of this month. The
encyclopedia's vast print resources have been combined with video
and audio to make the section useful to students and adults alike.
The entry on Malcolm X, whose death anniversary is on Feb. 21, is an
effective example of its multimedia approach. A handy timeline takes
you through the ages, beginning with the early 16th century (the
start of the slave trade) and ending with 1997 (Michael Jordan and
the Chicago Bulls win their fifth NBA championship). 

There are several sites that deal with the man who is widely
considered the father of the study of black history. To learn about
Carter G. Woodson, who established Negro History Week in 1926, visit
the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History
www.artnoir.com/asalh.cgw.html). In 1976, 26 years after his death,
the week was turned into Black History Month. 

Two sites that do not prominently feature Black History Month per se
but are worth a visit are the site of the NAACP (www.naacp.org) and
the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research
(web-dubois.fas.harvard.edu). NAACP Online is a good introduction to
the oldest and most famous civil rights group in the United States.
And the Harvard-based Du Bois Institute, which is named for the
co-founder of the NAACP, has information about its programs,
fellowships and faculty. 

The online resources of the New York Public Library's Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture
(www.nypl.org/research/sc/WEBEXHIB/legacy/a.htm) provide insight
into the extent of the contribution of blacks to the shaping of
American culture. They include exhibits about the Harlem Renaissance
in the early part of this century and key figures in it, like writer
Langston Hughes. 

A site that is unusually creative in its approach to African-American
movies and music is Black Voices (www.blackvoices.com). It includes a
"Blaxploitation" section, which lists movies in this genre, like
"Shaft" and "Blacula," and a "Jukebox" section, with sound clips from
a variety of recordings, like Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag,"
Charlie Parker's "Bird" and the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go."
Black Voices has also teamed up with online retailer Music Boulevard
to offer a selection of albums and articles to accompany observations
of Black History Month (all conveniently for sale, of course). 

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company 
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