Black History Month events honor past, present, and future contributions of African Americans

Throughout February, Clark University will celebrate Black History Month with a range of programs, from pop-up markets and speakers to film screenings and a special trip to Alabama.

Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) selects a theme for the month. The 2025 theme is African Americans and Labor, which focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds — free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary — intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. The ASALH is holding a month-long virtual festival of events honoring the transformative contributions of Black Americans.

Members of the Clark community are invited to participate in the University’s campuswide celebration, “Black History Month: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” Programs will be led by both University offices and student groups, including the Black Student Union, Office of Identity, Student Engagement, and Access, the Department of Education, and the School of Professional Studies.

In addition, a Clark-Inspired Experience trip to Alabama will allow students to explore key Civil Rights Movement landmarks in Birmingham and Montgomery. The trip will be funded by the D’Army Bailey ’65 Diversity Fund.

Events will include:

• Men’s and Women’s Basketball Black History Month games (February 5)
• Black Pop-up Market (February 12 and February 26)
• Black History Month Blood Drive (February 13)
• Black Arts Explosion (February 15)
• Black History Month Celebration Dinner: Empower Your Plate (February 15)
• Black History Month Film Feature: ‘American Fiction’ (February 23)
• Raphael Rogers: Representing Black Girl Magic with Contemporary Picture Books (February 25)
• Responding to the Absence of Blackness and Anti-Blackness in Elementary-Level Classrooms (February 25)
• Empowerment Through Knowledge: Black History Trivia and Bingo (February 26)