I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month

by Jarvis R. Givens

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published February 3, 2026

About the author

Jarvis R. Givens is Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Suzanne Young Murray Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Kristen Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jarvis R. Givens delivers a powerful, illuminating, and deeply necessary work that transforms how we understand Black History Month not as a simple annual observance, but as a century-long intellectual, cultural, and political movement rooted in struggle, scholarship, and collective memory. I’ll Make Me a World is both a historical account and a profound meditation on how Black history has been preserved, defended, and made visible across generations.

What makes this book especially remarkable is the way Givens traces the origins and evolution of Black History Month beyond surface-level celebration, revealing it as part of a much larger fight for historical truth and educational justice. By centering the vision of Carter G. Woodson and the generations of educators, scholars, and communities who carried that mission forward, the book restores the depth and urgency often lost in popular discussions of the subject.

The book shines in its ability to connect past and present. It shows how the struggle over who gets remembered and how has always been tied to power, identity, and freedom itself. Black history here is not treated as supplementary knowledge, but as foundational to understanding America and its contradictions. That perspective gives the work extraordinary relevance in today’s cultural and educational debates.

Givens writes with clarity, authority, and emotional resonance, balancing rigorous scholarship with a strong sense of purpose. This is an essential read for anyone interested in education, African American history, public memory, and the ongoing fight over how history is taught and understood.

A remarkable and urgent contribution to nonfiction. Highly recommended.

[Andrew Piersall · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we think of history, we tend to think about textbooks and facts that we know and can memorize. This book aims to challenge that assumption, highlighting how history is written, how it can be used as a weapon, or how it can be used as a life line for Black communities. In a time where critical theories are being silenced and replaced with state-sponsored ones which uplift the myth of the post-racial world, this book is paramount. It reminds us of the human work that went into preserving and sharing Black history, as well as the current memory-workers who keep it alive.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important piece of history we all should know.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening history.

[Caitlin Slaughter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking