The Griffin Sisters

The Griffin Sisters Helped Build Black Vaudeville

The sisters were not only a singing duo, they were successful businesswomen and advocates for Black-owned enterprises in the entertainment world.
An advertisement for a performance by Richard Potter

America’s First Ventriloquist

Richard Potter, the first American-born ventriloquist and stage magician, learned his trade after being kidnapped and abandoned as a child in Great Britain.
The cover of Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful by by Kwame Brathwaite, Tanisha C. Ford and Deborah Willis, 2019

Kwame Brathwaite Showed the World that Black is Beautiful

Photographing everyone from musicians to athletes to the person on the street, Brathwaite found the beauty in Blackness and shared it with the world.
The noble Ikhlas Khan with a petition, c. 1650

The Habshi Dynasty of India

Amongst the hundreds of minorities within the Subcontinent, Black Indians of African origin stand out.
Aimé Césaire, Conference on Negritude, Ethnicity and Afro Cultures in the Americas

Négritude’s Enduring Legacy: Black Lives Matter

Today's anti-racist activism builds on the work of Black Francophone writers who founded the Pan-African Négritude movement in the 1930s.
A train yard in Montgomery, Alabama

The Ballad of Railroad Bill

The story of Morris Slater, aka Railroad Bill, prompts us to ask how the legend of the "American outlaw" changes when race is involved.
Ruby Bridges

Chainlink Chronicle: Celebrating Black History in Louisiana

An exploration of one prison newspaper’s commitment to celebrating Black History with a unique focus on its home state.
(Clockwise from bottom left) Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Terminator X, S1W and Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy pose for a portrait in a studio, 1988

How Rap Taught (Some of) the Hip Hop Generation Black History

For members of the Hip Hop generation who came of age during the Black Power era, “reality rap” was an entry into the political power of Black history.
A Black soldier of the 12th Armored Division stands guard over a group of Nazi prisoners captured in the surrounding German forest, April 1945

Prisoners Like Us: German POW and Black American Solidarity

During World War II, almost a half million POWs were interned in the United States, where they forged sympathetic relationships with Black American soldiers.
Tommie Smith, John Carlos and other members of US team give the Black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics

Black Power on British TV

International television coverage of the American Civil Rights struggle was critical in the construction of racial identity and experience in postwar Britain.