It was a time in America when white racial resentment was a critical factor in everyday life. Crowds of Blacks marched and boycotted, their voices demanding...
Throughout Selma, Ala., there are streets named Frederick D. Reese Parkway and F.D. Reese. In March of each year, the city hosts F.D. Reese Day. Yet...
From his days as a sharecropper in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, James Leroy Brown (1926−1950) dreamed of becoming a pilot. In school, he excelled at math and became...
Many Black women have made significant strides within technology, yet they remain significantly underrepresented across the computer sciences spectrum. According to the United Negro College Fund,...
During the late 19th and 20th centuries, at least 88 and as many as 200 Black towns were established throughout the United States. Mostly or completely...
During a 1992 oral history interview with the American Institute of Physics, George Robert Carruthers (1939–2020) shared: “When I was about 8 or 9 years old,...
What began as a solitary peaceful protest for voter registration became one of the South’s most important demonstrations of the civil rights movement. Leaders like Martin...
By Tamara Shiloh It was June 5, 1966. James Howard Meredith (born 1933), on a mission to encourage Black voter registration and defy entrenched racism in...
Not much has been recorded of Yasuke’s life. There are no verifiable records after 1582, and his birth country is unknown. What researchers do know is...
Walter Lincoln Hawkins earned his degree in chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., a master’s in chemistry at Howard University and a doctoral...
Americans were in awe of young Philippa Duke Schuyler’s genius. The media often reported on her progress, specifically the Pittsburgh Courier. She received guidance, mostly from...
By 1983, Reginald F. Lewis’ dream was to “do the deals himself,” thereby establishing the venture capital firm TLC Group, LP. The firm purchased the failing...
The Providence, R.I.–born Philip Bell Downing was creative from childhood, always looking for ways to improve on the routines of daily life. As the son of...
Only 25% of Blacks drink wine, as opposed to 34 percent of their white counterparts, according to Batya Ungar-Sargon, managing editor of VinePair. This may be...
Hundreds of students from northern colleges recruited by the SCLC participated in demonstrations and sit-ins during Easter week of 1964. Most were jailed. “Some were made...
As a scientist, it is said that Ernest Everett Just (1883–1941) “saw the whole, where others saw only parts. He noticed details others failed to see”...
William Wells Brown personified the American dream. He’d become an internationally renowned antislavery activist and writer who resided in and traveled widely across the northern United...
During his youth, George Crum (1824–1914), born George Speck in Saratoga Lake, N.Y., worked as a guide in the Adirondack Mountains and as an Indian trader....
After 10 years of freedom, working hard and saving her money, Bridget “Biddy” Mason (1818–1891), in 1866, purchased two lots on the outskirts of Los Angeles,...
Basquiat often said that he “felt friendless and misunderstood.” After his parents separated, Gerard moved with his children to Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood. When he was...
In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Willie O’Ree Congressional Gold Medal Act. The bill awarded O’Ree a Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Congress’ highest...
“For far too long, Black people in the United States have been shown that outdoor exploration activities are not for us,” Corina Newsome, who studies Seaside...
A cordwainer is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather. Lasting is the part of the process that sets the final shape of a...
Moses Fleetwood Walker (1856–1924) took the field against the Louisville Eclipse on May 1, 1884, making him the first African American to play in a professional...
Although the music played by trumpeter John Blanke and other Blacks of his time were fanfares, ballads, and song accompaniments, they still opened doors for those...