Diversity Newsletter: Happy Black History Month!
- Aute Porter, LMFT
- Feb 4
- 7 min read
This February, we honor Black History Month by exploring its origins, overlooked figures, and reflect on Black mental health ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
‘Ia orana everyone,
I hope you all are having a lovely start to this new year! Is it me, or has it already been a lot?
For the first official Diversity Newsletter of 2026, we are celebrating Black History Month.
Black History Month
Black History Month first originated in 1926, when scholar and pioneer of Black history, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, established Negro History Week after discovering that Black history was systematically suppressed and ignored by academics. Choosing dates in February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, Negro History Week emphasized the political, cultural, and intellectual contributions of Black Americans. Through consistent advocacy, this week evolved to Black History Month, and was officially recognized in 1976.
The contributions of Black Americans to the United States are immense, playing an important and formative role to our country, while also highlighting our struggle for justice and equality. Through forced labor, enslaved Africans and their descendants generated enormous wealth that fueled American industrialization and capitalism. Through resistance and organizing, Black Americans challenged oppression via abolitionist movements and built independent institutions, such as churches, schools, and mutual aid networks that sustained their communities. In law and politics, Black Americans helped establish the nation’s first multiracial democracy, and, through sustained advocacy, expanded civil and constitutional rights. Culturally, Black creativity has profoundly shaped American life through art, dance, literature, social media, and especially music. And, Black athletes have used sports as one of the few accessible pathways to wealth and representation, breaking records on behalf of the U.S. — even while navigating barriers and unequal recognition.
Click here and here for a list of events taking place in Santa Barbara for Black History Month.
Anti-Blackness: the Root of Racism
“Anti-Blackness is a global structure of domination that positions Blackness as a threat, a problem, or a deficit.”
Sebastian Jackson, Anthropologist
Anti-Blackness refers to the structural devaluation of those racialized as Black, positioning Blackness as the baseline against which humanity, belonging, and worth are measured, and thus serving as the root of all racism. It has also historically dictated forms of exclusion, containment, surveillance, exploitation, and disposability. Anti-blackness exists across all institutions, with disparities around law and incarceration, healthcare, access to resources, economics, education, and media. I feel it’s important to name here, as it is undeniably a key player to not only understanding oppression and liberation, but also in understanding the experiences of Black and African-Americans, throughout history, up until now.
Zooming In: Hidden Figures
Pauli Murray (1910 - 1985)
Murray was a writer, legal scholar, and Episcopal priest who made huge impacts as an activist on civil rights and gender equality, despite working “behind the scenes.” Before Kimberlée Crenshaw officially defined “intersectionality,” Murray wrote about the interconnection between race and gender discrimination. Thurgood Marshall deemed her book States’ Laws on Race and Color as “the bible” of the civil rights movement, with Murray laying the groundwork for cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. Murray was also a co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), though did not receive credit as such during her lifetime, and influenced many gender discrimination cases for women’s rights.
Murray was mixed-race (Black, Native American, Irish, and white), queer, and struggled with her gender identity, sometimes passing as a teenage boy in her youth. By today’s terms, she likely would identify as gender non-conforming and trans-masc, which unfortunately may be why her innovative work is not more well-known.
Read more about her fascinating life here: The Many Lives of Pauli Murray by Kathryn Schulz
Paul Robeson (1898–1976)
Robeson was a true jack of all trades, excelling as a professional football player, an acclaimed singer and actor in film and on Broadway, and as a scholar. Finding himself playing tokenized, “noble savage” roles on stage, he advocated for global Black liberation and cultural reclamation by bringing the art of Negro spirituals (church music) into his performances. As such, he was the first Black performer to play specific leading roles, such as in Othello. Robeson used his fame and platform to advocate for labor rights and anti-colonial movements.
His outspoken criticism of racism, capitalism, and his refusal to denounce socialism together-led him to being surveilled by the FBI, and blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. Despite being so well-known in his time, even being touted as one of the most famous men alive, his important legacy is virtually unrecognized in the present. His life illustrates how Black radical thought has been systematically suppressed, though also shows the courage in living true to one’s beliefs.
Watch a documentary about his life Paul Robeson: Scandalize My Name produced by Lucasfilm here.
Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark (1917 - 1983)
Clark was a trailblazing social psychologist whose research on child development and racial identity paved the path for desegregating schools. She conducted the Doll Study, which demonstrated how racism and segregation harmed Black children’s sense of worth and self-concept. This research revealed that both Black and white children attributed negative traits to Black dolls, and positive traits of white dolls. This study provided critical evidence in Brown v. Board of Education, and was the first psychological research cited by the Supreme Court, where she served as an expert witness
Alongside her husband, Dr. Kenneth Clark, she co-founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, which was one of the first institutions to provide culturally responsive mental services to Black folks. Clark adhered to gender expectations of women at the time, and thus often let her husband receive the limelight, despite developing and conducting the bulk of their work together. Read more about Dr. Clark’s life here.
Black history continues, with many individuals actively shaping the political, cultural, and social landscapes today, examples including: Stacey Abrams, who has continued the fight for voting access; Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, Ryan Coogler, whose film Sinners recently received a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, holding a historic appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose writing has challenged national conversations about race, history, and power; and Colin Kaepernick, whose protest against racial violence sparked a global movement.
Black and African-American Mental Health
Black mental health must be understood within the context of historical trauma, ongoing systemic racism, and unequal access to care. Research consistently shows that Black Americans experience higher rates of psychological distress than white Americans, yet are significantly less likely to receive mental health treatment, and when they do, are more likely to encounter misdiagnosis, involuntary treatment, or culturally incongruent care. Gender also plays a critical role, as Black women report high levels of stress related to caretaking, workplace racism, and gendered racial expectations, while often being socialized to prioritize strength and self-sacrifice over rest and vulnerability. Meanwhile, Black men face disproportionate exposure to racial profiling, criminalization, and violence, contributing to elevated rates of trauma, depression, and suicide, particularly among younger men. Today, many culturally responsive frameworks addressing Black mental health have emerged, such as liberation psychology and Afrocentric approaches. Another example includes Dr. William Smith’s racial battle fatigue, which names the cumulative psychological toll of chronic exposure to racism and microaggressions, resulting in outcomes like high blood pressure and burnout. Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, defined by Dr. Joy DeGruy, situates present-day mental health challenges within the intergenerational trauma of enslavement, and the African-diasporic experience.
For generations, Black communities have relied on collective forms of healing through family, spirituality, storytelling, music, activism, and mutual support, often in the absence of accessible or culturally-specific mental health services. This month’s resource list aims to help therapists in increasing their competency in supporting Black and African-American clients.
Resources
Books
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Dr. Joy DeGruy
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Dr. Resmaa Menakem
Racial Trauma: Clinical Strategies and Techniques for Healing Invisible Wounds by Dr. Kenneth Hardy
The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez
Thriving in the Wake of Trauma: A Multicultural Guide by Dr. Thema Bryant
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice by Dr. Jennifer Mullan
My Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya-Renee Taylor
February is also Ethnic Equality Month, in addition to Black History Month, amongst these culturally significant dates:
February 1 – National Freedom Day
February 2 – Imbolc - Wicca/Paganism
February 4 – Rosa Parks Day
February 7 – National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
February 10 – Safer Internet Day
February 11 – International Day of Women & Girls in Science
February 15 – Nirvana Day (Buddhist)
February 15 – International Childhood Cancer Day
February 15 – Maha Shivaratri (Hindu)
February 16 – Family Day (Canada)
February 17 – Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) - Year of the Horse
February 17 – Mardi Gras
February 17 – Ramadan begins in the evening (Islam)
February 18 – Ash Wednesday
February 20 – World Day of Social Justice
This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending CAMFT’s Leadership Conference where numerous discussions on issues of diversity took place. At one such discussion, a Black therapist and attendee said aloud, “I never expected to be living in a civil rights movement. ” Given the numerous injustices taking place at this moment in time, I felt this was such a poignant reminder of our current climate, and of what many are feeling. Reflecting on these important aspects of our country's history this month is an opportune time to see tangible examples of hope, courage, resistance, change, and justice.
These diversity newsletters are intended as a form of psychoeducation. Underlined texts are hyperlinks. If you have a correction, question, or would like to expand on anything stated here, please reach out to SBCAMFT Diversity Director, Aute Porter, at diversitydirector@sbcamft.org.
Thank you for reading!
In liberation,
Aute Porter, MMFT, LMFT #153925
(she/her/'ona)
Diversity Director, Santa Barbara Chapter of CAMFT
Located on the unceded lands of the Chumash-Barbareño people.
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