Celebrate and honor the African-American heritage in Athens, Georgia this Black History Month. Learn, explore, and experience the numerous contributions African-American's have made through lecture, film and art. Events are being held throughout the month of February. A list of various events and programs are featured in this blog post. 

Lecture

Hunter-Holmes-Academic Building - University of Georgia

Justice Robert Benham to Deliver the Holmes - Hunter Lecture 

Visit UGA's North Campus on Monday, February 3 and head to the Holmes - Hunter building. Read the inscription on the plaque to learn when the first African-American students to attend the University of Georgia, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes, enrolled. Continue walking next door to The Chapel to hear an inspiring lecture named for the two students. This year the Holmes-Hunter lecture will be delivered by the longest serving and first African American member of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Justice Robert Benham.

A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History 

Stop by the UGA Special Collections Libraries on Thursday, February 20 to hear a lecture by Dekalb County CEO and acclaimed Athens historian, Michael L. Thurmond. Thurmond will discuss his book "A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History,"  which was recently updated and re-release in 2019, 40 years after the original publication.

Aralee Strange Lecture: Dr. Jamila Lyiscott 

Hungry for more? Stop by the Georgia Museum of Art on Thursday, February 20 for a lecture by Dr. Jamila Lyiscott. Lyiscott was recently appointed as an assistant professor of social justice education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a senior research fellow of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education. This talk will draw on Dr. Lyiscott’s ongoing research, personal experiences navigating multiple varieties of English and her work engaging arts and activism, problematizing traditional notions of what it means to be “literate” in our society.

FILM AND ART

Georgia Museum of Art

BLACK HISTORY MONTH FILM SERIES

The Georgia Museum of Art will show 3 films during the month of February in honor of Black History Month. On Thursday, February 6 the film Malcolm X, which stars Denzel Washington as a street hustler whose prison conversion to Islam finds him walking back into the world a free, profoundly changed man named Malcolm X, on Thursday, February 13 the film Selma which stars David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will play and on Thursday, February 27 the film Daughters of the Dust, which has been compared to Toni Morrison's novels, will play. — religious leader, political seer, American martyr. Directed by Spike Lee. 1992, PG-13, 202 min.

FAMILY DAY: CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Visit the Georgia Museum of Art on Saturday, February 15 to celebrate Black History at the museum during Family Day. Explore important works of art by artists of color in two exciting special exhibitions as well as in the permanent collection. 

EXHIBITION: KEVIN COLE: SOUL TIES

Visit the Georgia Museum of Art throughout the month of February to view Atlanta-based painter and mixed-media artist Kevin Cole's: Soul Ties, this display is included in more than 3,600 public, private and corporate collections throughout the United States, including the National Museum of African-American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. His paintings, three-dimensional wooden and metal constructions, are recognizable due to his frequent use of the necktie as a motif. This motif, alludes to both the struggle and celebration in the African-American experience. Come to the museum on Tuesday, February 11 to take a tour of the exhibition with  guides, Shawnya Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art.