MMB remains focused on continuing to turn our Diversity and Inclusion goals into action by walking the walk and making our agency a more educated, equitable, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We believe Black History deserves more than the shortest month of the calendar year--so we started celebrating on MLK Day and will continue through the end of February.

We know education and discussions foster change, which is why we’ve begun weekly talks about pivotal moments in Black American History, utilizing books, movies, poems, and art from Black creators. Our ED&I council invites you to join us by engaging in any (or all) of the following works:

Week 2: 

Discovery of the Americas (500BC-1492)

• Listen: NPR’s interview with Charles C. Mann, historian and author of ‘1491,’ the year before Columbus landed (8 mins.)

• Read: Chapter 2 of James Loewen’s ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me,’ which is titled, “1493” (108 mins.) or this summary & analysis, if you don’t own the book (30 mins.)

• Look: Christie’s Collector’s Guide to Pre-Columbian Art (15 mins.)

• Listen: 5 hip-hop songs that throw shade at Christopher Columbus (25 mins.)

  • “Oceans” by Jay Z ft. Frank Ocean

  • “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” by Lupe Fiasco

  • “If I Was President” by Wyclef Jean

  • “Change Gonna Come” by B.o.B ft. Charles Hamilton & Asher Roth

  • “Ancient People” by Nas

Week 3: 

America’s Colonization and History of Enslaved People.

• Watch: highlights from the Boston Middle Passage Remembrance Ceremony by the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (10 mins.)

• Look (& Read): art and documents from the Transatlantic Slave Trade (60 mins.)

• Read: Part 1 of ‘Stamped from the Beginning’ by Ibram X. Kendi. Or these summaries, if you don’t have the book (30 mins.):

  • Chapter 1: Human Heirarchy

  • Chapter 3: Coming to America

  • Chapter 4: Saving Souls, Not Bodies

  • Chapter 5: Black Hunts

• Listen: NYT’s 1619 podcasts about how slavery transformed America (216 mins.)

• Read: about why language matters and why the shift from ‘slave’ to ‘enslaved person’ is important (6 mins.)

WEEK 4:

America: Pre-and-Post Civil War.

• READ: about the contributions of Black Cowboys, one of the few jobs open to men of color post-Civil War 

• LISTEN: a direct descendant of a passenger of the Wanderer shares an oral history of the Mass Suicide at Igbo Landing 

• READ: the Compensated Emancipation Act and who “benefited” from it 

• WATCH: Ava DuVernay’s 13th (also available on Netflix), an examination of the US prison system and its historical ties to slavery and racism

• LISTEN: NYT Podcast on Juneteenth with Dr. Daina Ramey Berry 

• READ: a selection of speeches, letters, essays and editorials on the debate between African American emigration and colonization

WEEK 5:

Civil Rights Movement

• LISTEN: playlist of tunes by Black artists who evolved American music through the Chitlin’ Circuit and eventually climbed the Billboard charts 

• READ: The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates 

• EXPLORE: a digital exhibition, Standing Up for Change, that examines the role of Black women during the Civil Rights movement 

• READ: about the successes of Black Wall Street and the devastation caused by the Tulsa Race Massacre 

• WATCH: a telling of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade through drawings and historic photographs 

• LISTEN: the real story of Black Martha’s Vineyard 

• LOOK: Augusta Savage’s art, whose career was fostered by the Harlem Renaissance

WEEK 6:

Racism Today

• LOOK: at the Anti-Black work we may not realize we’re surrounded by, including work by Dr. Seuss and childhood nursery rhymes 

• LISTEN: Mikayla from the Instagram @theblckchelorettes shares her thoughts on The Bachelor and how language, expectation and representation (and misrepresentation) impact BIPOC folx 

• CELEBRATE: Queer black pioneers who have made and continue to make history

• WATCH + READ: Pixar’s Soul (available on Disney+) then read this New Yorker article by Namwali Serpell on the movie’s artistic errors, including its elusion of what soul means for black culture

• WATCH: TEDTalk by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who emphasizes the urgency and importance of understanding intersectionality

• LISTEN: The Liturgists podcast on Womanism with Nikki Blak, which dives into the importance of centralizing Black Women’s reality and the focus on women loving women