To request a presentation for your school, or for questions about Black History Month events and activities, please contact African American Student Services.
Black History Month Events (in PDF)
- February 1-28
Books, Black Authors, and Black
History episode on YouTube
Books, Black Authors, Black History –
A Broadcast with Trehon Coleman
- February 1-28
Annual African American Read-in
We encourage schools to invite
members of the TUSD community to
read a book written by or about African
Americans
- February 1-28
Schools Post Black History Facts
During Announcements and on Social
Media
- February 1-28
Schools Can Invite Guest Speakers
Into Their Classrooms
- February 3
Fireside Chat with Stacey Snowden
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of
her father, Coach Fred Snowden, and the
50th Anniversary of the Grand Opening
of McKale Center – hosted by the African
American Museum of Southern
Arizona
- February 10 • 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Musical Melodies
Join the Tucson High African American Culture Club and the African American Museum for an Evening of Musical Melodies Featuring the Tucson High Jazz Band, Morani Sanders Quartet, and Angel Spencer at Tucson High Main Auditorium • 400 N 2nd Ave.
- February 16 • 6 p.m.
Elementary Student Recognition
Program
Tucson Museum of Art
Grades: K-5
- February 17 • 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Annual African American Youth
Heritage Day
Hosted by TEEM at Pima Community
College
Grades: 9-12
- February 28 • 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Black History Month Brain Bowl at
Utterback Middle School
Schools compete in head-to-head
competition for the title “Black History
Month Brain Bowl Champions”
Grades: 6-8
Black History Month can be a wonderful celebration of the contributions that African Americans have made to American history and culture. All too often, however, those contributions are heralded in February but seldom mentioned throughout the rest of the year. Ideally, every month’s history curriculum should include those contributions, but how do you integrate African American history into the curriculum on a regular basis?
Go beyond approaches that marginalize African American history by "shifting the lens" to look at events from new perspectives. For ideas on how to best accomplish this, visit the following websites:
Alice Walker
Born in February 1944, Alice Walker is the first African American women to win a Pulitzer Prize. Her novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulizer for fiction in 1983 and was later produced into a movie that received 11 Academy Award nominations.
Claudette Colvin
Most people are familiar with Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. However, most people have never heard of Claudette Colvin. On March 2, 1955, Claudette, a 15-year-old student, refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus. This happened nine months before Rosa Parks decided not to give up her seat.
Mary Mahoney
Born in the spring of 1845, Mary Mahoney became the first African American women to complete nurse's training. She graduated from the nursing school of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879. She also served as a member of the American Nurses Association. She was later inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame and the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Mary Winston-Jackson
Mary Winston-Jackson, born in 1921, worked at NASA as an aeronautical engineer. Prior to serving as an engineer, she was hired as a “human computer.” Her job was to compute numbers and math equations by hand. Mary Winston-Jackson’s life was highlighted in the movie Hidden Figures.
