Now more than ever, we need to create space for racial healing and strategies for resilience, especially this Black History Month.

In 1893, Ida B. Wells published an epic anti-lynching pamphlet drafted in collaboration with Frederick Douglass and others titled The Reason why the Colored American is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition. In it, Douglass listed 22 things he wished to be true of America but were not, including “that the American Government was in reality a Government of the people, by the people and for the people, and for all the people.”

One hundred and twenty-eight years later, I – a Black woman – still wish these things to be true. My hope, strained across the trauma of the last four years, is the very reason my soul needs Black History Month this year.

One way I am regaining hope during Black History Month is by attending Advancement Project National Office’s first Black History Month event, Black Resilience in the Time of Bullsh*t, on Thursday, February 4 from 6-8 p.m. ET. I hope you will join us on Thursday as well. Register for the event and learn:

• How racialized trauma impacts our bodies impact
• The practices, rituals and recipes Black bodies have used to survive racialized trauma historically and contemporarily
• What is healing? And how can the racial justice movement center healing?
• Where else might we engage healing? Who else might we engage in our ecosystems of healing?

When I say that my soul needs Black History Month this year, what I mean is that I have an acute need to go back and remember who my people are. Not that I have forgotten, but I need to find solace in what they overcame. I need to regain strength by remembering what they accomplished against all odds. I need to regain some hope by gazing at the beauty their hands created.

The event, facilitated by Harriet’s Apothecary - a collective of powerful Black healers, will be one you will not want to miss. Read the first blog in our Black History Month series and tell us how you’re celebrating and healing on social media using #BlackHistoryHeals.

In solidarity,

Jeralyn Cave
Senior Communications Associate
Advancement Project National Office

Advancement Project
1220 L Street NW
Suite 850
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States

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