To many, February is the month dedicated to celebrating Black Americans’ contributions to a country where they were once enslaved. But Black History Month has an alternative: It’s called Black August. First celebrated in 1979, Black August was created to commemorate George Jackson’s fight for Black liberation. Fifty-one years since his death, Black August is now a monthlong awareness campaign and celebration dedicated to Black freedom fighters, revolutionaries, radicals and political prisoners, both living and deceased. The annual commemorations have been embraced by activists in the global Black Lives Matter movement, many of whom draw inspiration from freedom fighters like Jackson and his contemporaries. Source: Stanford Library Guide

Dr. Ruha Benjamin is a distinguished sociologist and the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is also the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to exploring the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine, with a particular focus on issues of race, justice, and equity.

Narratives of Resistance Workshop: Narratives of Resistance are stories, accounts, or expressions that highlight how individuals or groups oppose, challenge, or push back against systems of oppression, injustice, or domination. These narratives serve to reveal struggles for justice, dignity, and freedom and often emerge from marginalized or oppressed communities.

In 1968, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez established the Young Lords Organization (YLO) at Lincoln Park, one of the most impoverished barrios of Chicago, Illinois. Modeled and inspired after the Black Panther Party (BPP), the YLO emerged from a Puerto Rican street gang to a community-based organization involved in advocating for minority access to healthcare, education, housing, and employment. The YLO was multiethnic and inclusive to African American, Latino/x, women, and LGBTQ membership, self-identified as “revolutionist nationalists” who rallied for Puerto Rico’s independence and power to the people, and adopted a 13 Point Program and Platform—a set of policies, responsibilities, and principles the organization lived by. Source: Library of Congress