River Valley Community College is committed to supporting equity and inclusion for all members of the academic community. We seek to promote human rights and to ensure that the institution supports diverse populations of students, employees, and affiliates. We recognize individual and group differences as including, but not limited to, the following dimensions: race; ethnicity; national origin or ancestry; citizenship; immigration status; sex; gender; sexual orientation; physical or mental disability; medical condition; genetic information; marital status; registered domestic partner status; age; political beliefs, religion, or creed; military, veteran or law enforcement status; socioeconomic status; and any other basis protected by federal, state or local law or ordinance or regulation.
Black History Month
“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”
– Carter G. Woodson, Historian and Founder of Black History Month
February 1st – National Freedom Day
On this date in 1865, President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. The day was first advocated for by Major Richard Robert Wright Sr. who was born into slavery and freed after the Civil War.
February 10th – Lunar New Year
This signifies the first new moon of the lunar calendar. It’s a time rich in traditions and cultural festivities, often featuring family gatherings, special foods and diverse cultural rituals that differ from country to country, including performances, special decorations and the giving of good-luck gifts.
February 14th – Frederick Douglass’ Birthday (Observed)
This day honors the birth of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he became the face of the abolitionist movement in the North.
February 15th – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
This women’s suffrage leader advocated for equal pay and the right to vote for women. She also was an active member of the Abolitionist movement alongside Frederick Douglass.
Separate No More – The Long Road to Brown v. Board of Education
Author: Lawrence Goldstone
Summary: An evocative chronical of the battle that led to America’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling shares insights into the abuses of the “separate but equal” system and how such courageous activists as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois helped end legal segregation.
Print Book, English 2021
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Scholastic Focus, New York, 2021
This Promise of Change: one girl’s story in the fight for school equality
Authors: Jo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie Levy
Summary: When fourteen-year-old Jo Ann Allen and eleven other African American students walk into Clinton High School on an August morning in 1956, they know they are walking into history: they’ve been told they are the very first students to integrate a public high school in the American South. What they don’t know is how treacherous their journey will be. Their eastern Tennessee town is a courteous, yes-ma’am, no-sir kind of place, where blacks and whites seem to get along. But something darker lurks beneath the civility in Clinton, and when outside agitators interfere, local whites’ muffled objections turn to unrestrained bigotry and violence. Soon, even the Clinton 12 themseves wonder whether they should just return to their old school. As the desegregation crisis makes headlines across the country, Jo Ann – clear-eyed, practical, tolerant, and popular – finds herself in the spotlight as a spokesperson for the group. But that’s not the only life she wants: she also wants to focus on music, friendships, and, of course, her education. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of an extraordinary trailblazer fighting for civil rights – and for the right to be an ordinary teenager. — From dust jacket
Print Book, English, 2019
Publisher: Bloomsburry Children’s Books, New York, NY, 2019
Hidden Figures: the untold story of four African-American women who helped launch our nation into space
Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
Summary: New York Times bestselling author Margot Lee Shetterly’s book is now available in a new edition perfect for young readers. This is the amazing true story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.
eBook, English 2016
Edition: Young readers’ edition, First edition
Publisher: Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY 2016
Discover more through WorldCat Black History Booklist
Voices of DEI
Resources
- Gender: Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture – Lee Airton PhD
- Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077 – Craig Davidson
- On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life – Sara Ahmed
- The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies – New Edition – Scott Page
- Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships across Differences – Tiffany Jana
- Unpacking Trauma-Informed Teaching – Jennifer Gonzalez
- TedxNappa Valley: Civility – Shelby Scarborough
- This is Equity – California Teachers Association
- A Theory of Justice – John Rawls