Celebrate Black History Month with the UConn Library

Focusing on the theme of Black Resistance, we have many ways you can join our celebration of Black History Month. There will be exhibit in multiple locations that include Homer Babbidge Library, our regional campuses, and Archives & Special Collections. We will be hosting a screening of Rosewood (1997), the cinematic retelling of a true-to-life racial pogrom that decimated a predominately African American town in Florida, and a discussion with Lizzie Robinson Jenkins, founder and president of the Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc. We are also co-sponsors of the African American Cultural Center’s Black History Month Closing Ceremony.

Image of one of the exhibition posters in the Disorder in the Night: Narratives of Black Resistance, 1723-2023 exhibition.

Exhibition – Disorder in the Night: Narratives of Black Resistance, 1723-2023
     February 1-28, 2023
     Located in multiple locations including: 
        Homer Babbidge Library Plaza
        Avery Point Campus Library
        Hartford Campus Library
        Waterbury Campus Library
        Stamford Campus Library 

Disorder in the Night explores the Black resistance in its various forms, from the period of enslavement to the present. Organized by three broad themes: everyday subversions – small acts of resistance taken in everyday life or daily activities; cultural revolution – the use of creative expression through media or the arts to create social, political, or cultural change; and collective action – the power of people and the use of cooperative organizing or mass mobilization throughout history. 
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Image of two of the actors in the film Rosewood

Event – Film Screening – Rosewood (1997)
This blockbuster film is the cinematic retelling of the true-life destruction of an African American community in 1923. It Jim Crow-era violence and the Black radical tradition of resistance.
      February 21, 6:00-8:30pm
      Homer Babbidge Library
      Class of 1947 & Virtual
      Free! Registration required
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Event – Discussion: Rosewood Film & History
with Mrs. Lizzie Robinson Jenkins, Founder & President of the Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc. and Rosewood descendant.
      February 22, 6:00-7:30pm
      Virtual only
      Free! Registration required 
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Image of Dr. Rik Stevenson, courtesy of the University of Florida's African American Studies
Dr. Rik Stevenson, courtesy of the University of Florida’s African American Studies

Event – Black History Month Closing Ceremony
We are a proud co-sponsor of African American Cultural Center’s Black History Month Closing Ceremony with a keynote address by Dr. Rik Stevenson, a professor of African American Studies at the University of Florida. Dr. Stevenson’s research examines Black resistance in the Middle Passage.
      February 27, 6:00pm
      Student Union Ballroom
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Resources to learn more 
including research guides and featured collections on our website.