CIRCLES SALUTES BLACK HISTORY AND LABOR
Circles USA is proud to mark our nation’s 49th annual Black History Month, a holiday whitehouse.gov proclaims “an occasion to celebrate the contributions of so many black American patriots who have indelibly shaped our Nation’s history.”
As public opinion on critical race theory, intersectionality, and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs becomes increasingly polarized, Circles USA reaffirms our commitment to racial equity as an essential component of the American Dream. We recognize that efforts to undermine these frameworks can contribute to the division of working-class communities, and we remain dedicated to fostering unity and economic opportunity for everyone. To this end, we welcome community-centered dialogues on race as a positive tool for bridging difference and building shared prosperity.
Writer, teacher, and historian Emily Chiariello, author of “Mining the Jewel of Black History Month”, argues that Black History is a crucial part of any complete historical education for all Americans. “Before you write it off as multiculturalism 101,” Chiarello writes, “consider what you can learn about the relationship of race and culture to curriculum and pedagogy this February.”
That “learning curve,” Circles Chief Learning Officer Kris Alexander reminds us, is as important outside the classroom as inside of it. Kris affirms the value of ongoing cultural education in service of equity: “My time at Circles has deepened my understanding of the work needed to achieve true economic justice. This is particularly true for Black families who continue to experience systemic racism and oppression embedded in laws and policies over generations,” she says. “Bread for the World’s Racial Wealth Gap Experiential powerfully illustrates the persistent discrimination that Black communities face.”
2025’s Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor," also aims to grow awareness of the interconnections between race and poverty by spotlighting the 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." [Source]
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s website decrees: "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.” [Source]
WAGE GAPS, DISCRIMINATION AND BLACK LABOR
In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published data showing that “[t]he number of Blacks in the labor force is projected to increase from 19.6 million in 2016 (12.3 percent of the 159.2 million total) to 21.6 million in 2026 (12.7 percent of 169.7 million total).” [Source]
Despite the growth of Black labor participation in the U.S., Black workers still receive lower wages than white workers in comparable roles. According to Stacy M. Brown’s 2025 study in the Washington Informer, “[t]he median income for Black households in 2023 was $56,490, compared with $84,630 for white households, a 33.3% gap, and an increase from the 31.6% gap in 2022.” [Source]
“Progress in the fight for racial and economic justice—or lack thereof—has swung like a pendulum between those who want change and those who want to maintain the status quo,” writes Audra Wilson, CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. “Systemic racism in America is codified in treatises, statutes, and case law. Its consequences are clear: an enormous racial wealth gap, political disenfranchisement, and glaring disparities in health, education, employment, and housing.” [Source]
Circles USA Executive Director Kamatara Johnson believes that closing these gaps requires a whole-community approach to problem solving.
“Circles USA serves individuals and families who fall into a gap within the economic spectrum,” she says.”They are working hard yet unable to escape the trap of persistent financial instability, and none more so than Black individuals and families. In fact, despite some social advances, single Black mothers still experience poverty at a disproportionate rate—particularly given a high rate of single parenthood while working full time hours. So our position is clear: policy that supports Black families to thrive is necessary for all communities to thrive.”
QUICK GUIDE: SELECTED BLACK HISTORY RESOURCES
Circles USA recommends visiting the outstanding archive compiled at blackhistorymonth.gov, a joint project of The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The site, which aims to “[pay] tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society,” is a year-round repository for educational, creative, historical, and demographic resources on Black history and culture in the U.S. Sites currently linked on blackhistorymonth.gov include:
In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World, which details the exhibition on view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture through June 8, 2025;
Your Park Story: Black History and Heritage, an overview of 400+ years of “Black history and heritage…preserved in national parks and communities around the country”;
a catalog of Black History Month events and materials curated by, and hosted at, Smithsonian museums;
a comprehensive Library of Congress archive of outstanding African American veterans;
Black History guides and classroom resources designed specially for teachers; and
Power & Light: Russell Lee's Coal Survey, a National Archives Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery exhibition which features 1946 coal survey photographs of Black coal miners.
Blackhistorymonth.gov’s 2025 Event Highlights page offers many more highlights and activities for February and beyond.
The YWCA published a notable blog post in February 2022, The Unsung Legacy of Black Feminism: From Jane Crow to Intersectionality, which examines Black labor and history through the lens of women who must navigate multiple forms of systemic oppression.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Black History Month Digital Toolkit spotlights the 2025 theme of African Americans and Labor with a host of “key stories of Black people's often invisible labor of all kinds — across time, industry, and community.” The website makes visible little-known histories of Black midwives, a Learning Lab module featuring the work of inventor Valerie Thomas, a tribute to the couture designs of fashion icon Ann Lowe, a virtual tour of the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, and much more.
The Stanford Social Innovation Review’s “The Significance of Four Centuries of Black Labor” offers an excerpt from Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America, Joe William Trotter, Jr.’s 2019 book which “reflects on the meaning of centuries of black labor for the future of America’s economy and democracy.” Workers on Arrival,
counters widespread notions about poor and working-class blacks as primarily consumers, takers, and liabilities in our current urban political economy …by restoring the broader historical context of African Americans as workers, producers, and assets in the development of the American economy, institutions, and politics. [Source]
Two excellent articles on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre from History.com and The National Endowment for the Humanities recount a seminal event in U.S. history: the mob assault on Tulsa, Oklahoma’s thriving “Black Wall Street” financial district of Greenwood, which was “shot up, torched, and bombed from the air by white vigilantes” seeking to destroy Black wealth.
Take Action for Libraries, a watchdog site for public library and literacy advocates, writes: “Although February is a time to bring Black history to the center of attention, educating yourself all year is essential. Much of Black history has been left out of everyday teachings. However,” they continue:
Black History Month was created as an act of resistance…Knowledge comes with power, and understanding the past helps everyone understand what needs to be achieved today. Black history informs, inspires, and remembers both accomplishments and challenges of the United States’ past. Take the initiative and educate yourself all year long, not just during the month of February. [Source]
“At Circles,” Kris Alexander concludes, “We’re committed to building intentional, diverse communities to break the cycle of poverty. Poverty has long been a collecting place for those who have been hurt by systemic inequities, reinforcing patterns of exclusion and hardship. To create a better reality for all, we must dismantle these barriers, ensuring that economic struggle is no longer a place where our most vulnerable are forced to gather. Racial equity is not just a goal—it is a necessity for a just and prosperous society.”
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