American South

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 

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.

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

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

Joro spiders are eye-catching, with bright yellow, blue and red coloration.

Large, Parachuting Spiders Could Soon Invade the East Coast, Study Finds

The authors say the arachnids are harmless to people and pets and may even eat pests like stink bugs

Pruitt took roughly 88,000 photographs of life in and around Columbus, Mississippi, between 1916 and 1960. Pictured: a Black baptismal group on the bank of the Tombigbee River, circa 1930s

Chronicling the Triumphs—and Tragedies—of Life in the Deep South

A new book and traveling exhibition highlight the work of Mississippi photographer O.N. Pruitt

An aerial view looking southwest from Charleston, with the Stono River wending through the landscape.

What the Haunting 'Inner Passage' Represented to the Enslaved

These photographs explore the waterways of the South that brought suffering to so many and also provided some a way out of bondage

Anyone who drives the stretch from Miami to Key West is bound to be mystified by the ghostly remains of an early 20th-century railway.

In the Florida Keys, a Century-Old Bridge Reopens as a Tropical High Line

A portion of the Seven Mile Bridge, an engineering marvel completed in 1909, has been transformed into a linear park

Harriet Jacobs, who escaped enslavement to write Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), created these three dolls for the children of writer Nathaniel Parker Willis around 1850-60. 

Black Dolls Tell a Story of Play—and Resistance—in America

A new exhibition traces the toys' history from handmade cloth figures to an American Girl character

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Discover the Resilience of Mobile’s Africatown

A look inside the historic southern Alabama neighborhood where descendants of America’s last slave ship still reside today

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