Black History Month 2024 (2024)

Courtesy of the artist

Black Futures: In the '90s, dance music was in a 'constant state of mutation'

WXPN

February 20, 2024 • For Black History Month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison recounts the proliferation of dance music subgenres in the '90s.

Apple TV+

The first Black 'Peanuts' character finally gets his origin story in animated special

February 19, 2024 • The origin story of the first Black Peanuts character is streaming on Apple TV+.

Dillon Howl/Courtesy of the artist

Black Futures: Nailah Hunter forges her own dark fantasy on 'Lovegaze'

WXPN

February 15, 2024 • The Los Angeles-based harpist and composer talks about approaching her instrument in new ways on her debut album.

Jackie Lay

The Lonesome Hearts of 1937

February 14, 2024 • To celebrate the history of Black romance, Gene and Parker are joined by reporter Nichole Hill to explore the 1937 equivalent of dating apps — the personals section of one of D.C.'s Black newspapers. Parker attempts to match with a Depression-era bachelor, and along the way we learn about what love meant two generations removed from slavery.

The Frankie Knuckles Foundation

Black Futures: How house music took center stage in the '80s

WXPN

February 13, 2024 • For Black History Month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison walks us through the synth-driven boom of electronic music in the '80s.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Their journey to unearth a cemetery for enslaved people led to communitywide interest

February 9, 2024 • Urban development has erased many Black cemeteries around the U.S., but now a movement to find and memorialize them is underway.

Charles Kelly/AP

5 MLK speeches you should know. Spoiler: 'I Have a Dream' isn't on the list

February 7, 2024 • Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech is well known, but there are several other key speeches that also resonate as historical signposts of the Civil Rights Movement.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Black Futures: How disco set the stage for dance and electronic music

WXPN

February 6, 2024 • For Black History Month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison dives into the rise of disco in the '70s and the genesis of dance and club culture.

David Zalubowski/AP

Target pulls Black History Month book that misidentified 3 civil rights icons

February 2, 2024 • The magnet book mixed up W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington and Carter G. Woodson. Target said it will no longer sell the book in stores or online and that it notified the publisher of the errors.

Braden Lee & Christopher Behnen; Randijah Simmons; David Muessig/Courtesy of the artists

For Black History Month, World Cafe looks forward to 'Black Futures'

WXPN

February 1, 2024 • World Cafe turns its ear toward the future with a spotlight on up-and-coming artists blazing their own path beyond genre.

Aubri Juhasz/Aubri Juhasz

6 books to help young readers learn about Black history

February 1, 2024 • Five authors, librarians and book shop owners suggest turning to literature to help teach kids about Black history, culture and themes for this Black History Month.

James Baldwin's Shadow (Throwback)

February 1, 2024 • James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. An insightful commentator on Black identity, American democracy, and racism, he saw something deep and ugly and stubborn in American culture, and never hesitated to call it by its name — to bear witness, regardless of what it cost him. As the United States continues to reckon with all aspects of its history, writer and professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. guides us through the meaning and purpose of James Baldwin's work, and how his words can help us navigate our current moment.

Shaban Athuman/VPM

Don Scott becomes first Black speaker in Virginia Legislature's 400-year history

January 10, 2024 • Del. Don Scott, a rising star among Virginia Democrats with a unique personal story, was voted in as speaker of the Virginia Statehouse.

AP

Black History Month 2024 has begun. Here's this year's theme and other things to know

February 1, 2023 • The annual celebration started out in 1926 as Negro History Week and expanded to Black History Month in the 1970s. This year celebrates "African Americans and the Arts."