Black History Month

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.

The podcastHISTORY This Weekexplores 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