First-ever free ‘MasterClass’ for Black History Month

During the rest of Black History Month, you can take advantage of a unique and free opportunity to reflect and appreciate the Black community.

For the first time ever, MasterClass — a virtual platform for people to learn from the best of the best — is offering a class for free. “Black History, Black Freedom, & Black Love” brings together some of the world’s most influential Black women and men.

The class is split into three parts: Past, present and future. The 54 lessons — totaling nearly 11 hours of content — are available to stream for free on the MasterClass website or through Prime Video.

“It’s one of the most important things we’ve ever done at MasterClass,” Nekisa Cooper, vice president of content for MasterClass, said. “When you think about Black History Month, and it being a month where there is a national conversation happening around race, it just felt appropriate.”

“[Our hope is] to contextualize and provide awareness and understanding of some of the challenges that still face our society today,” Cooper added. “I think when people think about race and racism we try to put that in the past and I think what this content does is help connect the past with the present.”

The instructors for “Black History, Black Freedom, & Black Love” range from professors, authors and philosophers.

• Jelani Cobb
  • Staff writer at The New Yorker and professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism
• Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Creator of the 1619 and Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University
• Angela Davis
  • Distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of “Women, Race, and Class”
• Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
  • Creator of the term “critical race theory” and professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School
• Cornel West
  • Professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and author of 20 books
• John McWhorter
  • Contributor at The Atlantic and professor at Columbia University
• Sherrilyn Ifill
  • President and director-counsel of the NAACO Legal Defense Fund

Yohuru Williams, history professor and founding director of University of St. Thomas’ Racial Justice Initiative, says he’s appreciative that MasterClass is offering this class for free.

“[Especially] given the enormity of this issue over the last couple of years,” Williams said.

“I think Minnesota, like a lot of communities has a long way to go in terms of addressing issues of historic trauma,” Williams told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. “I sit, for example, on the St. Paul commission that’s looking into reparations for slavery and historic injustice in the city of St. Paul.”

While Professor Williams says that work is important, trauma should not be the only focus during Black History Month; he added people should uplift and appreciate the many Black lives that have made great contributions to society.   

He also says the learning does not need to stop at the end of the month — and that the East Side Freedom Library is a solid source for that knowledge.

Established in 2014, the East Side Freedom Library is located in one of St. Paul’s most diverse communities in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

“We have collected, catalogued and shelved over 26,000 books that focus on the stories that have typically been marginalized in the United States,” Peter Rachleff, co-executive director for the East Side Freedom Library, said. “[We work to bring] those stories into the center of attention.”

Adjusting with the pandemic, the library isn’t open to the public right now and their community conversations are now held virtually and shared online — including their fifth anniversary celebration — where MasterClass instructor of “Black History, Black Freedom, & Black Love” Jelani Cobb was their guest speaker.

You can watch “Black History, Black Freedom, & Black Love” here.