February is Black History Month, in which African American contributions to art, music, science, theology, and social justice are celebrated.

You can join in the celebrations by participating in a number of events this month, including:

• Admiring photographer Aki Bang's work exploring crime and institutional racism in America at 6pm Monday, February 20
• Watching "4 Little Girls," a Spike Lee documentary about the murder of four African American girls in 1963, at 8pm Tuesday, February 21.  

You can also learn more about African American accomplishments by checking out books and databases on the subject. One such database is African American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2, which includes over 350 newspapers chronicling 150 years of the African American experience. A subject search in our online catalog on "African-Americans--History," yields a list of more than 2,600. Some of these are books that can be found in the E185 call number area. Others are documents in the Library of American Civilization series on microform. Still others are DVDs on famous African-Americans and movies about the Black experience such as "Roots" and "Glory." 

Take some time this month to explore the riches of African American history at the Hekman Library.