The 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.
Indeed, work is at the very center of much of Black history and culture. Be it the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed Low Country colonies, debates among Black educators on the importance of vocational training, self-help strategies and entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice, Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. The 2025 Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor,” sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work.
Association for the Study of African American Life
(EBSCO) has launched Exploring Race in Society™, a full-text research database that offers essential content covering race-related issues to libraries and researchers at no cost. This resource encourages thoughtful discourse by providing students with a deep understanding of how current issues in society stem from actions and policies of the past.
Exploring Race in Society provides an in-depth look at the history of race and delivers critical context on topics related to race, ethnicity, diversity and inclusivity, offering students necessary resources for developing a better understanding of the experiences of racial groups in society.
Exploring Race in Society provides proprietary essays written and reviewed by a diverse group of writers representing the fields of academia, journalism, medicine, and other disciplines working to address issues related to race. In addition to the essays, Exploring Race in Society includes full-text articles from academic journals, primary source documents, nonprofit organizations, primary source documents and government agency reports.