The Real History of the Complex Relationship Between Chinese and Black Americans in the Mississippi Delta
The remarkable success of the movie “Sinners” has sparked a renewed interest in how the two communities wrestled with life under Jim Crow
Amaze Yourself With the Unbelievable Story of Bessie Coleman, the Black Aviator Who Wowed the Nation With Her High-Flying Achievements
Long before the Tuskegee Airmen, Coleman inspired a generation of pilots to take to the skies
Trailblazing Filmmaker Ava DuVernay Receives the Smithsonian’s Great Americans Medal
DuVernay is the first director, writer and producer to earn the honor, which recognizes “lifetime contributions embodying American ideas and ideals”
Locals Thought These Shipwrecks Had Belonged to Pirates. They Turned Out to Be 300-Year-Old Danish Slave Ships
The two vessels had been trafficking hundreds of enslaved Africans when a navigational error led them astray. They sank off the coast of Costa Rica in the 18th century
The Only Black, All-Female Unit to Serve Overseas in World War II Receives the Congressional Gold Medal
The Six Triple Eight cleared a years-long backlog of mail in just three months. Eighty years later, the unit is finally getting the recognition it deserves
Now Open in Kansas City, The World’s First Barbecue Museum Is a Feast for the Senses
Jump in the bean-themed ball pit, solve a pork puzzle and pose with a championship mustard belt at the new Museum of BBQ
A Young Sailor’s Remains Return Home 84 Years After He Was Killed at Pearl Harbor
Neil Frye was 20 when Japan launched its surprise attack on December 7, 1941. He has been laid to rest with full military honors in his home state of North Carolina
This Exhibition Spotlights the Black Artists Who Called France Home in the 20th Century
A blockbuster show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris spotlights 300-plus works by 150 artists of African heritage
New Museum Examines the History of American Public Housing—and the Stories of Its Residents
Located in a preserved 1930s development in Chicago’s West Side, the museum includes three recreated apartments representing families of different decades and demographics
![Senator Joseph McCarthy “comes along really chronologically halfway through the story [in the early 1950s], and there’s a lot that happened before he was even on the scene,” says author Clay Risen.](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/ee-zkNhyyeZSehRcxDnYUB-QAj4=/450x300/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/dd/f0/ddf0fc8a-56de-40d6-ae40-efcb46ac804b/gettyimages-515261284.jpg)
Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare, a Hunt for Communists in Postwar America
In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation
The Nation’s First Black Female Doctor Blazed a Path for Women in Medicine. But She Was Left Out of the Story for Decades
After earning a medical degree in 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler died in obscurity and was buried without a headstone
Discover Patrick Henry’s Legacy, Beyond His Revolutionary ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ Speech
Delivered 250 years ago, the famous oration marked the height of Henry’s influence. But the politician also served in key roles in Virginia’s state government after the American Revolution
Eight Never-Before-Seen Short Stories by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Author Harper Lee Will Be Published This Year
After Lee’s death in 2016, typescripts of her early fiction were discovered in her New York apartment. The previously unseen drafts offer new insights into her creative development
A Mystery Surrounding the Grave of JFK Is Solved
A sculpture recognizing a spontaneous gesture of affection towards the slain president vanished into thin air more than half a century ago. Here’s the story of how it was just recently rediscovered.
How a Leading Black Historian Uncovered Her Own Family’s Painful Past—and Why Her Ancestors’ Stories Give Her Hope
Martha S. Jones’ new memoir draws on genealogical research and memories shared by relatives
This Man Just Set a New World Record for Scuba Diving in All Seven Continents
Barrington Scott began his 27,000-mile quest in Australia and completed it in Antarctica. The journey took him 19 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes
From the Antebellum South to the Civil Rights Movement, Black American Women Have Long Told Their Stories Through Quilts
In a new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, over 30 works showcase the significance of this quilting tradition
The Real Story Behind ‘Nickel Boys’ and the Brutal Florida Reform School That Inspired the Film
Based on a Colson Whitehead novel, the Oscar-nominated movie dramatizes the story of the Florida School for Boys, which traumatized children as young as 5 for more than a century
The Trailblazing Black Librarian Who Rewrote the Rules of Power, Gender and Racial Passing
Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of the Morgan Library, was a Black woman who passed as white in the early 20th century
Orson Welles’ All-Black Version of ‘Macbeth’ Excited Theatergoers Nationwide
The bold staging of Shakespeare’s classic helped make Harlem a home for “serious” theater
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