Black History Month
The Peekskill Riots Revealed the Racism and Antisemitism Hidden Beneath the Surface of the Anti-Communist Movement
In the summer of 1949, World War II veterans protested a pair of concerts held by Paul Robeson, a Black singer and civil rights activist who expressed support for communist causes
This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did
William "W.R." Saxon filed a lawsuit against the company that forced him to move to the back of the bus, seeking damages for the discrimination and mental anguish he’d faced
Why Descendants Are Returning to the Plantations Where Their Ancestors Were Enslaved
Some Black Americans are reclaiming antebellum estates as part of their family legacy, reflecting the power and possibility of these historic sites
Why the Nordic Countries Emerged as a Haven for 20th-Century African American Expatriates
An exhibition in Seattle spotlights the Black artists and performers who called Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden home between the 1930s and the 1980s
This Play Within a Play Confronts the Power Dynamic Between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson
In "Sally & Tom," Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks continues her investigation of American myths
How a Century of Black Westerns Shaped Movie History
Mario Van Peebles' "Outlaw Posse" is the latest attempt to correct the erasure of people of color from the classic cinema genre
How the Memory of a Song Reunited Two Women Separated by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestors
These 15 Moving Photos Celebrate Black History Month
To mark the February heritage month, these images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest offer proof that African American history is timeless
The Founder of This Trailblazing Opera Company Put Black Singers at Center Stage
Mary Cardwell Dawson created unprecedented opportunities for aspiring Black musicians
How to Separate Fact From Myth in the Extraordinary Story of Sojourner Truth
Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented
Near the Site of the Gettysburg Address, These Black Civil War Veterans Remain Segregated, Even in Death
Denied burial alongside Union soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, the 30 or so men were instead buried in the all-Black Lincoln Cemetery
What a Teacher's Letters Reveal About Robert Smalls, Who Stole a Confederate Ship to Secure His Freedom From Slavery
Harriet M. Buss' missives home detail the future congressman's candid views on race and the complicity of Confederate women
How the Smithsonian Is Helping Black Americans Trace Their Roots
Free sessions hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture offer visitors advice on researching their genealogy
What Newly Digitized Records Reveal About the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The archival trove chronicles the extreme measures administrators took to ensure Black sharecroppers did not receive treatment for the venereal disease
The Black Sailor Whose Heroic Actions During a Shipwreck Made Him an Instant Celebrity of the Roaring Twenties
Lionel Licorish earned accolades for rescuing as many as 20 passengers from the wreckage of the S.S. "Vestris"
New DNA Analysis Could Help Identify Victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre
Experts have linked six genetic profiles sequenced from exhumed remains to 19 potential surnames in seven states
Frederick Douglass Thought This Abolitionist Was a 'Vastly Superior' Orator and Thinker
A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward
The Brief but Shining Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Poet Who Gave Dignity to the Black Experience
A prolific writer, he inspired such luminaries as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes
For the Enslaved Potter David Drake, His Literary Practice Was His Resistance
This 19th-century vessel, made to store meat, carries a powerful backstory of Drake's defiance of the laws of enslavement
The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S.
Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations
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