Black History

Amistad Case

Background In 1839, a group of Africans from Sierra Leone were abducted and shipped to Havana, Cuba, to be sold as slaves. When they arrived in Cuba, two Spanish plantation owners, Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz, illegally purchased 53 to work as slaves on their Caribbean plantation. They loaded the Africans aboard the Cuban schooner …Read More

Birmingham Church Bombing

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the African American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963, when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located …Read More

Double V Campaign

The Double V Campaign was an African American initiative, led by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, that aimed to achieve a double victory (“Double V”) during World War II. The two objectives were victory in the war abroad and victory against discrimination on the home front. How did it start? The inspiration for the campaign came …Read More

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln effective January 1, 1863. It changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the …Read More

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver (1860s – January 5, 1943) was an American botanist and inventor. He actively promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism. In an era of very high racial polarization, his fame …Read More

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement that started in the years following World War I and ended in the mid-1930s. It was most vibrant during the 1920s and was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. This period saw an explosion in African American cultural arts such as music, literature, …Read More

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. 1822– March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John …Read More

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was born in Cairo, Georgia, but grew up in southern California. He attended UCLA, where he participated in football, basketball, track, and baseball. From 1942 to 1944, during World War II, Robinson served with the U.S. Army. Afterward, he briefly played baseball for the Negro …Read More

Madam C.J. Walker

Madam C.J. Walker (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was a businesswoman and philanthropist who was also the first African American female self-made millionaire. Early Life Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 on a cotton plantation near Delta, Louisiana, Walker was the daughter of formerly enslaved parents. Orphaned at just 7 years old, she married …Read More