African American History

Plans for the Emanuel Nine Memorial Unveiled

The monument to the nine black parishioners slain in Charleston in 2015 will include two wing-like benches that arc around a marble fountain

Members of Revitalization Corps marching in Old Saybrook

Racism Kept Connecticut's Beaches White Up Through the 1970s

By bussing black kids from Hartford to the shore, Ned Coll took a stand against the bigotry of “armchair liberals”

Images of Vickie Jones for the March 1969 Jet profile.

The Counterfeit Queen of Soul

A strange and bittersweet ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity and unlikely stardom

Route 66 and 10 Other Sites That Made the 2018 "Most Endangered Historic Places" List

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual list is out

Wealthy Bostonian John Freake who, a new caption reveals, owned a slave.

Museum Ties Portraits of the Wealthy to Their Slaveholding Pasts

New signs at the Worcester Art Museum illuminate how wealthy New Englanders benefitted from the slave trade

Charleston's City Hall, where Tuesday's vote was held, was built by enslaved people.

Charleston, South Carolina, Formally Apologizes for Its Role in the Slave Trade

Some 40 percent of enslaved Africans entered the country through Charleston

Grace Murray Stephenson and family at an Emancipation Day Celebration in 1900.

Why Juneteenth Celebrates the New Birth of Freedom

The commemoration of the end of slavery holds special meaning for Americans nationwide

The first map of the United States, published in 1784 by Abel Buell, shows the recent addition of the Northwest Territories—a region that would soon include the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, home to thousands of African-American pioneers.

The Unheralded Pioneers of 19th-Century America Were Free African-American Families

In her new book, 'The Bone and Sinew of the Land', historian Anna-Lisa Cox explores the mostly ignored story of the free black people who first moved West

Monticello's main house and South Wing

Putting Enslaved Families' Stories Back in the Monticello Narrative

An oral history project deepens our understanding of U.S. history by sharing accounts of the community owned by Thomas Jefferson

The Unheralded Legacy of Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Cotton

The late activist helped organize the Birmingham marches and educated the disenfranchised about their constitutional rights

Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago chats to Congressional candidate Charles Hayes. The woman on Washington's right, who was cropped out of the photo, is Carol Moseley Braun; she would go on to become the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

The Archives of Historic Black Newspapers Are Going Digital

The Obsidian Collection is collaborating with Google Arts & Culture to ensure the journalism is preserved for many years to come

"Lost" John Coltrane Album to Be Released

<i>Both Directions At Once</i> was recorded in 1963 by the classic quartet and reveals Coltrane's journey from melodic standards to avant-garde jazz

Worshippers at Holy Angel Catholic Church on Chicago’s South Side, in October, 1973.

The History of Black Catholics in America

The Black Catholic Movement reinvigorated the church, with liturgical innovation, new preaching styles and activist scholarship

In 2013, Winfrey was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Oprah's Undeniable Influence on American History Recognized in New Smithsonian Exhibition

The National Museum of African American History and Culture follows Winfrey's life, from her roots in rural Mississippi to her success as a cultural phenom

Sign outside white lunch counter in county courthouse building Montgomery, Alabama, in 1960.

58 Years Later, Alabama Clears the Records of 29 Black Students Who Protested Segregation

The students sat down at the courthouse lunch counter in a non-violent demonstration

Thornton Dial, “History Refused to Die” (2004)

For the First Time, See Historically Excluded Black Folk Artists at the Met

'History Refused to Die' shows off the masterful works made by self-taught artists from the American South

“I knew I had to tell a story of the past,” says Don Flemons, the Grammy-winning co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Songster Dom Flemons Brings Back the Melodies of the Black Cowboy

The Latest from Folkways, a Label Marking 70 Years, revives music traditions from the African-American ranch crews of the West

“Art can’t change society,” said White, whose stirring images challenged stereotypes. “It can only change individuals.”

A New Exhibit Gives Charles White's Art and Activism the Attention They Deserve

A century after his birth, an overlooked figure in the Black Renaissance is on the rise again

Millicent Brown broke the racial barrier at a Charleston, South Carolina, high school. “This was the challenge of our day,” says Brown, a historian and activist.

The Defiant Ones

As young girls, they fought the fierce battle to integrate America’s schools half a century ago

Josiah Henson as a young man at left, and at right, at age 87, photographed in Boston on June 17, 1876

The Story of Josiah Henson, the Real Inspiration for 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'

Before there was the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a formerly enslaved African-American living in Canada wrote a memoir detailing his experience

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