In October each year, Black History Month is marked in some European countries to celebrate and highlight the lives and the achievements of Black people throughout history and in the present. It is also a month of discussion, reflection and campaigns which bring challenges faced by Black communities to light.
Last year, we created a new exhibition ‘Black Lives in Europe’ that explored the lives and achievements of a number of Black figures such as Toussaint Louverture and Nicola Adams, from the 1600 to the present day. We invited guest writers to support our editorials and interviewed organisations highlighting Black European History. Since then, we’ve continued to publish new stories that can be found on our Black history feature page.
Our plans in 2022
We look forward to once again sharing stories of Black history from the past to the present through our editorials, social media, online courses and partnerships. We will continue to promote the editorials we’ve already created and our exhibition ‘Black Lives in Europe’. And we aim to explore the steps that cultural heritage institutions can take to acknowledge, surface and highlight Black history in their own collections through Europeana Pro news.
Our plans for Black History Month are part of our wider efforts across our Initiative to be more inclusive and diverse. We want to give more space to the narratives of underrepresented groups, in order to become more representative of the society in which we live. Find out more about the work being done towards this at the Europeana Foundation.
Get involved
We want to support cultural heritage institutions to get involved in Black History Month, and we can help to share your work and content in a number of ways. We're particularly interested in hearing about stories or projects from southern, eastern and central Europe. If you would like to get involved, you can:
Write an editorial piece which highlights Black history for the Europeana website or recommend historical Black European figures we could feature. You are welcome to share images and objects from your own collections.
Tell us about your plans for Black History Month so that we can explore ways to support and align them with our activities.
Share your own work through Europeana Pro. Is your organisation mainly focused on Black history or running projects and exhibitions to highlight it? Let us interview you and raise awareness about the importance and challenges of making Black history accessible.
'Take over' our instagram account by sharing stories from your institution.
You can do all of the above by filling out our form or getting in touch with [email protected]. In addition, you could:
Promote relevant content, blogs, images and objects from your own collections on social media. Use #BlackHistory and tag us @Europeanaeu when you do.
Highlight a well-known or lesser-known historical Black figure on social media. Again, use #BlackHistory and tag us @Europeanaeu when you do.
Follow, retweet and share our editorials and news posts throughout the month - we will be sharing them on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
For any other questions or ideas, please get in touch with [email protected].