Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

African American History

A John Trumbull painting of the death of General Hugh Mercer at the Battle of Princeton in 1777

America's 250th Anniversary

Ken Burns Says His New Documentary Forced Him to Revisit Everything He Thought He Knew About the American Revolution

Ahead of the PBS production’s premiere, the legendary filmmaker and co-director Sarah Botstein share insights on their research process and the surprising, long-overlooked stories featured in the six-part series

Pauline Baker, Daisy Whitner, John Williams and Priscilla Williams Carolina are all descendants of potter David Drake.

An Enslaved Man Made Thousands of Ceramic Pots. Now, a Boston Museum Has Returned Two of Them to His Descendants

Many of David Drake’s large vessels featured his signature and inscriptions, even though he created them during a time when literacy among enslaved laborers was illegal

The Mutiny on the Amistad, one of three murals depicting the saga of the slave ship Amistad, was jointly sold to two organizations that lend American art to public institutions. 

An Alabama HBCU Is Selling Historic Murals in First-of-its-Kind Partnership

Talladega College will sell four of its six Hale Woodruff murals, which commemorate the Undergound Railroad and the mutiny of Amistad

The gala honoring Misty Copeland included speeches and performances at Lincoln Center. The American Ballet Theater also livestreamed the event to audiences at a nearby venue.

Trailblazing Dancer Misty Copeland Performs One Last Time Before Retiring From the American Ballet Theater

The ballerina has advocated for dancers of color on and off stage. In a farewell gala this week, she celebrated her accomplishments—and discussed what comes next

Zora Neale Hurston posing outside of a cabin in Belle Glade, Florida, circa 1935

Zora Neale Hurston’s Forgotten Play Premieres on Stage for the First Time

Based on the author’s short story and ethnographic fieldwork, “Spunk” languished in Library of Congress’ archives for decades

The Cato who aided Hercules Mulligan might have been a man enslaved by the powerful Schuyler family.

Untold Stories of American History

Did an Enslaved Chocolatier Help Hercules Mulligan Foil a Plot to Assassinate George Washington?

New research sheds light on the possible identity of Cato, the Black man who conveyed the tailor’s lifesaving intelligence to the Americans during the Revolutionary War

Medical supplies for the front are piled up at a railway station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1935. Back in America, Black educator Melva L. Price rallied support for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the violence of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

During the Great Depression, This Black Educator Looked to Conflicts Abroad for Lessons on Fighting Racism at Home

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War offered Melva L. Price and her fellow female activists an opportunity to examine the links between racism and fascism

Joseph McNeil speaks about the Woolworth’s sit-in in a 2023 interview.

Joseph McNeil, Member of ‘Greensboro Four’ Who Protested Segregation at Lunch Counters, Dies at 83

McNeil and three other Black freshmen held a famous sit-in at Woolworth’s in 1960, which inspired peaceful protests across the country

None

When Historians Rediscovered These Frederick Douglass Letters, They Were Surprised by His Candid Opinions About Abraham Lincoln

In correspondence with a passionate abolitionist in London, the great American orator didn’t hold back when talking about the 16th president, or his successor, the much-maligned Andrew Johnson

The gun is now part of a permanent exhibition about TIll at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

The Gun Linked to Emmett Till’s Murder Is Now on Display at a Museum in Mississippi

The weapon is thought to have belonged to J.W. Milam, one of the two men who kidnapped, tortured and killed the Black teenager for whistling at a white woman in a grocery store in 1955

A home rule protest held in front of the White House in April 1965

History of Now

How the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act Enabled the Nation’s Capital to Govern Itself—With Congressional Oversight

Far from being a new debate brought on by current events, the discussion over extending home rule to Washingtonians has been around as long as the District of Columbia itself

Edward P. McCabe argued that Black people could not only belong in the new American territorities, but actually be in charge.

Untold Stories of American History

This Visionary African American Politician Dreamed of Creating an All-Black State in Oklahoma Territory

Edward P. McCabe petitioned Benjamin Harrison for an opportunity to show him that Black people “are men and women capable of self‑government.” When the president was unmoved, McCabe and his followers went west anyway

An exterior view of the Studio Museum in Harlem's new building

Studio Museum in Harlem, Closed for Renovations Since 2018, Sets November Reopening

The museum, which features work from African and African American artists, will debut a new look in its expanded space

Artist Franck Duval, known as FKDL, works on a mural Josephine Baker in Paris.

Women Who Shaped History

A Vibrant Mural Celebrating Josephine Baker’s ‘Two Loves’—‘My Country and Paris’—Has Been Unveiled in France

The colorful street art, which features a quote from one of her songs, honors the iconic singer, dancer and civil rights activist’s enduring legacy

Karin Wulf's new book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America, explores the many ways in which people of the past reflected on their family histories.

Why 18th-Century Americans Were Just as Obsessed With Their Genealogy as We Are Today

People living in British America and later the nascent United States recorded their family histories in needlework samplers, notebooks and newspapers

"Mysteries From the Deep: Exploring Underwater Archaeology" features interactive experiences, 3D models and excavated artifacts.

How Underwater Archaeology Brings Secrets to the Surface, From Lost Shipwrecks to Submerged Cities

An immersive new exhibition at the Intrepid Museum in New York City spotlights the science and technology behind the discipline

An 1880 Harper's Weekly illustration titled Women at the Polls in New Jersey in the Good Old Times

America's 250th Anniversary

How Women in New Jersey Gained—and Lost—the Right to Vote More Than a Century Before the 19th Amendment Granted Suffrage Nationwide

Vague phrasing in the state’s Revolutionary-era Constitution enfranchised women who met specific property requirements. A 1790 law explicitly allowed female suffrage, but this privilege was revoked in 1807

James Baldwin in Kilyos, Turkey, in 1965

A New Biography Offers the Most Intimate Portrait Yet of One of the 20th Century’s Greatest Authors

Research into James Baldwin’s archives reveals incisive details about the writer’s personal relationships, both platonic and romantic, with other men

An engraving by Edward Savage, after Robert Edge Pine's 1784-1788 painting Congress Voting Independence

America's 250th Anniversary

These Daring Revolutionary-Era Artists Promoted the Patriot Cause From the Heart of Enemy Territory

A new book explores how painters, sculptors and writers, especially women and people of color, used their craft to advocate for American independence while living in George III’s capital city

The costume for the Wiz, the title character of The Wiz musical, which made its Broadway debut in 1975, is in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

When ‘The Wiz’ Debuted on Broadway 50 Years Ago, It Sparked a Brand New Day for Audiences

How the remarkable musical transformed a beloved folk tale into a celebratory vision for the future of Black America

Page 3 of 60