In celebration of Black History Month, Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) presents cultural and community events that honor the achievements of Black people and the importance of civil rights in America.
EMCC will be hosting a broad range of Black History Month events throughout February that feature learning, discussion, and support. See below for the full calendar of events.
Black History Month was officially recognized in 1976 to honor the accomplishments of Black people throughout American history.
In honor of Black History Month, we’re looking back at Allenville, an all-Black community that lived in harmony from 1944 until 1978 when a devastating flood forced everyone to abandon the one-square-mile town for good...
One in four cowboys in the Southwest was Black? The most famous Black cowboy was Nat Love, whose autobiography was published in 1907.
Born into slavery in 1854, Love left Nashville, Tennessee at 15 years old and headed West. He decided to make his way to Dodge City, Kansas, a trip of about 900 miles, which he says he made “by walking and occasional lifts from farmers going my way." He had developed a talent for breaking horses, and he was able to use this ability to make a living in Dodge City and further West.
Love began working for the Pete Gallinger company, located on the Gila River in Southern Arizona, in 1872. Love explains that he “became one of their most trusted men” and “soon became well known among the cowboys[,] rangers, scouts and guides” he encountered along the cattle trails he followed from the Gila River to western Texas.
While Love was able to make a good living as a cowboy, historian Deborah M. Liles explains that the prevalence of Black cowboys in the West was no coincidence. She explains that slave narratives, letters, and journals describe how enslaved men, women, and children were often responsible for tending to cattle in the deep South, and they “used these valuable skills after emancipation in the era of the great cattle drives.” In fact, it is estimated that there may have been more than 9,000 working Black cowboys in the West in the 1880s.
To read a digital version of Nat Love's autobiography, visit https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/natlove/natlove.html.
Although they may at first blush sound vaguely pleasant, for Black Americans, sundown towns represent the worst threats of human existence—violence, injustice, and death.
The term “sundown” means, plainly, that Black Americans would face violence, unlawful arrest, or death if they remained in the town after dark.
In the early and mid-20th century, some towns, including Tempe, Scottsdale, and Prescott, put up offensive and threatening signs that warned Black travelers and workers to leave by dark. Other towns weren’t so forthright, which meant Black Americans had to quickly discover the threat levels or face violence.
The Arizona Territory had started as a Confederate outpost before being taken over by Union forces and claimed as a Union territory in 1863. But the switch from Confederate to Union did not guarantee freedom for Arizona’s Black residents, since many early settlers in Arizona were white Confederate transplants from the slave-owning South. These settlers brought their culture and prejudices with them to the desert Southwest.
In fact, just three years before it became a state, in 1909, Arizona passed a series of segregation and Jim Crow laws that made it illegal for Black and white people to share educational facilities or public places like restaurants and parks, and it required that all potential voters take a literacy test before being registered to vote.
These laws stayed on the books in Arizona until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but there are, even today, some towns in Arizona where it is not safe for our Black students and employees to travel.
To learn more about sundown towns, visit https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/sundowntowns.php.
#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer.
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, BLM is winning immediate improvements in Black lives.
To learn more about the movement, visit https://blacklivesmatter.com/.
Robert Williams, the grandson of a former slave, was born in 1925 in Monroe, North Carolina. Williams was an American civil rights leader who believed in the right to self-defense against racist violence.
As early as the late 1940s, Williams was advocating armed self-reliance for migrant laborers and victims of civil rights abuses—views that were uncommon at the time among civil rights activists.
Williams once said, “Nowhere in the annals of history does the record show a people delivered from bondage by patience alone.”
To learn more about Robert Williams, visit https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/williams-robert-f-1925-1996/.
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Event |
Date |
Time |
Facilitators |
Workshop Support |
WebEx Links |
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Black History and Achievement Month: Kick-Off |
Mon, 2/1
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12pm - 1:30pm |
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Call-in: (US) +1 602-666-0783 (toll) |
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10 Things You Probably Did Not Know That Africa, Africans, and Black People Gave to the Americas |
Tues, 2/2
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11:30am - 12:30pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=mee68180d35a3183b8615ace6d8f7cbc4 Call-in: (US) +1 602-666-0783 (toll) |
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Taking a Look at Black History |
Fri, 2/5
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1pm - 2pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m4ef4911818fd4ea1d1591f64777b72bd Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Celebrating Our Youth |
Mon, 2/8
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12pm - 1pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m8719b44741d11aa8b5b7e9ed8dba1891 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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ABCs of Racism |
Tues, 2/9
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12pm - 1pm |
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Introducing the West Valley NAACP |
Weds, 2/10
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1pm - 2pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m3e4465c15f6bca6ca8a67045f1f76d9b Call-in: Join by phone +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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7 Habits of Financially Successful People |
Weds, 2/10
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3pm - 4pm |
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Trauma in the Black Community |
Tues, 2/16
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1pm - 2pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m75e1d05176ed670587fd2bd47b3b444a Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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As we remember, we begin to heal: Honoring those we lost from COVID |
Tues, 2/16
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2pm - 3pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m56b0a3d382839078600437d8069fd09a Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Health Awareness: How COVID has impacted the Black Community |
Weds, 2/17
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2pm - 3pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m6e8f59367505fe65d9051ccc0b9a65f9 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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7 Habits of Financially Successful People: Part 2 |
Weds, 2/17
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3pm - 4pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=md82bd645c28d83f9d620ad3128dd6fd9 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Crown Act: The Official Guide to Natural Hair Discrimination Law |
Thurs, 2/18
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12pm - 1pm |
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Black Student Union Interest: “For the Culture Game Night” |
Thurs, 2/18
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5:30-6:30pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m70763c7a01a7347e4f931052809876d1 |
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The Art of Hair Braiding with Charity Jones |
Fri, 2/19
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1pm - 2pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=maffa934682efbde6324c353f9686f6b0 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Book Talks: Black Fatigue-How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. By Mary-Frances Winters |
Mon, 2/22
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11am - 12pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m617a0184649bfae67dee0e29674ade56 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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What are they doing now? Panel Discussion |
Mon, 2/22
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1pm - 2:30pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=mc4febf913ae2b05d648908d01a70745e Call-in: +1 602-666-0783 (toll) |
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What To Do When Stopped By The Police |
Thurs, 2/25
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10am - 12pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m8fb91f9dfdc05a165ea0d531016becd4 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Black Business Forum |
Thurs, 2/25
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12pm - 1pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m404bd930b41dd372ddff913302f0fef3 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
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Black History and Achievement Month: Wrap-Up & Mini Talent Showcase |
Fri, 2/26
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1pm - 2:30pm |
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Meeting Link: https://maricopa.webex.com/maricopa/j.php?MTID=m89e954a1f35cc7420e7ece6fb08d5dd1 Call-in: +1-602-666-0783 United States Toll (Phoenix) |
For additional info, contact Najmah Muhammad at 623-935-8488.