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Black History Month

Learning about the history of systemic racism during Black History Month – and all year – in the mental health system and movement and how it harms Black communities in the US and around the world is key for creating a mentally healthier world.

We are highlighting Black and African American contributions to the mental health movement because they are oftentimes overlooked. Without recognizing the lack of representation of Black and African American people in the mental health movement, we do a disservice and continue to inflict harm.

This is a non-exhaustive list of Black and African American mental health resources.

*Note: MHA uses “Black History Month” as opposed to African American History Month to acknowledge the contributions of Black people whose ancestry is unknown or who do not identify as African.

Black Mental Health History

Black pioneers in mental health

The 1840 U.S. Census was overly interested in Americans’ mental health

The Central State Hospital Digital Library & Archives Project

The Black Mental Health Alliance

The podcast HISTORY This Week explores what happened in 1840 as U.S. Marshals went door to door conducting the sixth-ever census in the United States. That marked the first time the U.S. government included a question about mental health. The results were tragic and long-lasting. Twenty-one years before the Civil War erupted, with over two million enslaved people in America, the question fed and upheld a racist and pernicious lie that was spreading throughout America at the time: freedom causes African Americans to go insane.

A Century of Stigma for Black America and Mental Health