American South

Live oaks in Beaufort, South Carolina, photographed using an old-fashioned wet-plate process

The Live Oak Tree Has Withstood the Ravages of History

Majestic and sturdy, the icon of the American South has offered protection time and again

More than 3,000 lunchboxes are on display inside the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum.

A Nostalgic Trip Awaits at the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum

Take a journey back to your elementary school cafeteria with a visit to the Georgia outpost

John H. Smith (left), mayor of Prichard, Alabama, unsuccessfully campaigned for the creation of an Africatown national park.

Untold Stories of American History

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

Crews carefully relocated the building to Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum roughly half a mile away.

Oldest Schoolhouse for Black Children Moves to Colonial Williamsburg

The school educated free and enslaved Black children between 1760 and 1774

Mobile, Alabama is considered by many to be the birthplace of Mardi Gras.

The Best Mardi Gras Parades Beyond New Orleans

You may think of the “Big Easy” on Fat Tuesday, but other towns throughout Louisiana and the wider Gulf Coast play host to raucous celebrations

This year's picks include Black Lion, The Catch Me If You Can and The Slow Road to Tehran.

The Best Books of 2022

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2022

After two years of limited travel opportunities, we’re ready to explore the world once more

Felton advocated lynching Black men accused of raping white women—“a thousand times a week if necessary,” as she said in an infamous 1897 speech.

The Nation's First Woman Senator Was a Virulent White Supremacist

In 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton, a Georgia women's rights activist and lynching proponent, temporarily filled a dead man's Senate seat

The enigmatic John Smith Hurt, shown in 1966, was a pioneer of the vital American art form known as Mississippi Delta blues.

A Pilgrimage to Honor a Blues Legend

With a mysterious memento from long ago in hand, a devoted fan of the blues artist Mississippi John Hurt returns to the Delta

Singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn was applauded—and sometimes banned—for her daring songs about women's lives. 

Country Legend Loretta Lynn Braved Controversy to Tell the Truth About Women's Experiences

The self-taught singer-songwriter died on October 4 at her home in Tennessee

By March 1862, Judith Henry's Virginia home had been reduced to rubble.

Untold Stories of American History

The Civil War's First Civilian Casualty Was an Elderly Widow From Virginia

Union gunfire killed 85-year-old Judith Carter Henry on July 21, 1861—the day of the First Battle of Bull Run

Sunrise near St. Joe, a mining town that fell into decay about a century ago. Today, it’s a destination for people exploring the Buffalo River.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

What Makes the Buffalo River the Jewel of the Ozarks

An unabashed tribute to the wild Arkansas waterway that became the nation’s first national river 50 years ago

Rendering of the International African American Museum

A Museum Exploring the African American Experience Is Coming to Charleston

Slated to open early next year, the space will explore the legacy and contributions of enslaved people and their descendants

Michelle Browder's Mothers of Gynecology monument in Montgomery

Untold Stories of American History

Subjected to Painful Experiments and Forgotten, Enslaved 'Mothers of Gynecology' Are Honored With New Monument

The statues acknowledge the suffering of bondswomen overshadowed by the white doctor who operated on them without their consent

The FORMAT festival will be held on 250 acres of open green land just a few miles outside of Bentonville, Arkansas.

Walmart Heirs Launch New Music Festival in Bid to Make Arkansas an Art Destination

FORMAT will bring big-name musicians, contemporary artists to Bentonville

A 19th-century illustration of two yellow fever victims in New Orleans

Race in America

How Yellow Fever Intensified Racial Inequality in 19th-Century New Orleans

A new book explores how immunity to the disease created opportunities for white, but not Black, people

The Commemorative at St. Mary's College of Maryland honors the enslaved people who once lived and worked there.

Good News

National Park Service Adds 16 New Underground Railroad Sites to Commemorative Network

The recognitions honor the resistance and bravery of freedom seekers and their allies who risked their lives to resist slavery

The anchor of Industry, a whaling ship that sank in 1836 in the Gulf of Mexico 

Cool Finds

A Shipwreck, a Robot and an Archival Treasure Hunt Reveal the Diverse History of the Whaling Industry

Free Black Americans and Native Americans once worked on the "Industry," a whaling ship whose wreck was recently identified in the Gulf of Mexico

Virginia Union University is one of the rare HBCUs in America that can tie its origins to a Black woman: Mary Lumpkin.

Women Who Shaped History

The Enslaved Woman Who Liberated a Slave Jail and Transformed It Into an HBCU

Forced to bear her enslaver's children, Mary Lumpkin later forged her own path to freedom

The facade of Talbot County Courthouse in Easton, Maryland, as pictured in 2010

History of Now

Maryland Removes Its Last Confederate Monument on Public Land

Workers removed the Talbot Boys Statue on Monday after years of pressure from the local community

The former Aunt Fanny's Cabin in Smyrna, Georgia, will be demolished if no one comes forward with money to move it.

The Complex Legacy of an Anti-Black Restaurant Slated for Demolition

Locals in Smyrna, Georgia, are rallying to preserve Aunt Fanny’s Cabin as a tribute to eponymous Black cook Fanny Williams

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