African American History
The 1873 Colfax Massacre Set Back the Reconstruction Era
Occuring 150 years ago, one of the worst incidents of racial violence after the Civil War set the stage for segregation
DNA Evidence Sheds Light on One of America's Oldest Black Churches
New research links human remains in Williamsburg, Virginia, to the first permanent building of the First Baptist Church
At Fort Pillow, Confederates Massacred Black Soldiers After They Surrendered
Targeted even when unarmed, around 70 percent of the Black Union troops who fought in the 1864 battle died as a result of the clash
A New Graphic Novel Takes Readers Inside the Fight of the Century
The pages highlight the dramatic, racially charged match between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries
When President Ulysses S. Grant Was Arrested for Speeding in a Horse-Drawn Carriage
The sitting commander in chief insisted the Black police officer who cited him not face punishment for doing his duty
Long Before Jazz, Frank Johnson Was Playing the Hottest Music in America
The innovations of a forgotten genius who laid the groundwork for the nation's signature music
Frederick Douglass Thought This Abolitionist Was a 'Vastly Superior' Orator and Thinker
A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward
Movements Capturing the Spiritual Roots of Black Culture
A new exhibition of rarely seen images and artifacts chronicles the African American religious experience
Monument to Harriet Tubman Unveiled in New Jersey
The 25-foot-tall memorial celebrates Newark’s connection to the Underground Railroad
These Photographs of Spirituality in America Will Speak to Your Soul
A new volume from the National Museum of the African American History and Culture explores religion in the Black community
Postal Service Unveils Forever Stamp Honoring Toni Morrison
A ceremony at Princeton celebrated the Nobel laureate whose words transformed American literature
The Brief but Shining Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Poet Who Gave Dignity to the Black Experience
A prolific writer, he inspired such luminaries as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes
For the Enslaved Potter David Drake, His Literary Practice Was His Resistance
This 19th-century vessel, made to store meat, carries a powerful backstory of Drake's defiance of the laws of enslavement
The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S.
Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations
The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People
Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils
What You Should Know About the Mardi Gras Indians
For more than a century, New Orleans' Black residents have donned Native-inspired attire to celebrate Carnival
The Forgotten 1980s Battle to Preserve Africatown
A new book tells the definitive history of an Alabama community founded by survivors of the slave trade
Oldest Schoolhouse for Black Children Moves to Colonial Williamsburg
The school educated free and enslaved Black children between 1760 and 1774
How an All-Black Female WWII Unit Saved Morale on the Battlefield
Glory goes to the 6888, who overcame discrimination from fellow service members and are finally getting the recognition they earned
In 1946, a Black Pilot Returned to the Cockpit After a Double Amputation
Neal V. Loving, whose memoir will soon be released by Smithsonian Books, built his own planes, ran a flight school and conducted research for the Air Force
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