Hugo La Fayette Black was a Supreme Court justice for over three decades, and is remembered as a defender of civil rights.

This Supreme Court Justice Was a KKK Member

Even after the story came out in 1937, Hugo Black went on to serve as a member of the Supreme Court into the 1970s

Within Our Gates is the oldest surviving film by a black director.

Cool Finds

Watch the Oldest-Known Surviving Film by an African-American Director

Within Our Gates was Oscar Micheaux’s response to a racist classic

Aleutian people stand on the deck of a ship forcibly evacuating them to southeastern Alaska.

Trending Today

The U.S. Forcibly Detained Native Alaskans During World War II

In the name of safety, Aleuts were held against their will under intolerable conditions in internment camps

African-American Girl Scouts chat at a camp named after Josephine Holloway, who pioneered scouting for girls of color.

Cool Finds

Girl Scouting Was Once Segregated

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

A segregated bus stop in North Carolina.

The Complicated Racial Politics of Going “Undercover” to Report on the Jim Crow South

How one journalist became black to investigate segregation and what that means today

History of Now

Muslims Were Banned From the Americas as Early as the 16th Century

Long before today’s anxiety about terror attacks, Spain and England feared that enslaved Africans would be more susceptible to revolt if they were Muslim

The lunch counter interactive at the National Museum of African American History and Culture explores key moments in the struggle for Civil Rights.

Commentary

What Death Threats Against My Parents Taught Me About Taking a Stand

Family stories are an ideal way to explore themes like “where have I come from?” and “where am I going?”

Cool Finds

This Map Shows Over a Century of Documented Lynchings in the United States

Mapping the history of racial terror

When it comes to representation, this coin is more than worth its weight in 24-karat gold.

Cool Finds

New $100 Coin Features First-Ever African-American Lady Liberty

She’ll put a new face on a familiar allegory

Harriet Tubman in 1911. The later years of her life are being preserved at a new national historical park that bears her name.

Women Who Shaped History

Harriet Tubman Is Getting Her Own National Historical Park

The park will tell the story of Tubman’s later years

From left to right: Ricky Jackson is finally a free man; Japanese Americans head into internment in 1942; a Maryland boy (in red) has an inmate mom.

American Incarceration

The Far-Reaching Effects of American Incarceration

Three photo essays explore the history and modern-day consequences of the world’s highest incarceration rate

An official notice of exclusion and removal posted on April 1, 1942.

Trending Today

75 Years Ago, the Secretary of the Navy Falsely Blamed Japanese-Americans for Pearl Harbor

The baseless accusation sparked the road to the infamous internment camps

Canada will have plenty of time to get used to Viola Desmond—she'll soon be on the country's $10 bills.

Canada

Canada Will Put Another Woman on Its Currency

An early civil rights heroine makes history (again)

With its peace accords up in the air, the Colombia's diverse ecosystems face an uncertain future. Shown here: the valley of Cocora near Salento, Colombia.

How Colombia’s Failed Peace Treaty Could Wreak Havoc on Its Diversity-Rich Ecosystems

A potential influx of legal and illegal mining leaves the country’s megadiverse landscapes—and the communities who depend on them—in jeopardy

"I try to go into the personal stuff because I really believe that’s the most universal," says Aziz Ansari.

American Ingenuity Awards

With “Master of None,” Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original

The star of the breakout television series brings the voice of his generation to the masses

Sylvester James Gates, a theoretical physicist and voice for faith and science.

Think Big

Why Theoretical Physicist Sylvester James Gates Sees No Conflict Between Science and Religion

“I got used to the idea that questions had answers.”

A lobby card for Gunsaulus Mystery, a 1921 silent film written, directed and produced by Oscar Micheaux, an early black silent film auteur.

Cool Finds

Explore the Flickering, Forgotten Past of African-Americans in Silent Film

An estimated 80 percent of silent movies with all-black casts are thought to be lost, but a new project is making sure the people who made them aren’t

People crossing a Tokyo street are caught in a mirror. As the country's foreign population grows, racism is thought to be on the rise.

Trending Today

Why Japan Is Asking Foreigners About Racism

Just how widespread is racism in Japan? An unprecedented survey aims to find out

Freeman Fisher Gosden and Charles Correll, c. 1935 (detail), as "Amos and Andy"

Commentary

The Long, Unfortunate History of Racial Parody in America

Art historian Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw discusses the painful performative origins

Cool Finds

See the Marriage License From the Historic Loving Decision

Visitors can see the document that led to the Supreme Court case that overturned laws barring interracial marriage in the U.S. on display

Page 12 of 14