Nadra Kareem Nittle

After sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made a defiant gesture from the awards podium at the Games, they faced repercussions—but also gained respect.

When four Black students refused to move from a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960, nation-wide student activism gained momentum.

As African Americans achieved economic success in Atlanta in the early 1900s, the city simmered with racial strife that was further inflamed by yellow journalism.

The poet and author of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' constantly tackled new roles, including streetcar conductor, dancer and journalist.

After opponents decried the tower's appearance for 'disregarding French taste,' Gustave Eiffel installed some key scientific devices at the top to give it purpose and ensure its survival.

She may be best known for her 1972 run for president, but Shirley Chisholm broke barriers and influenced change throughout her life.

Since 1968, 11 Black women have entered the running for the highest office in the nation.

Coretta Scott King led on issues ranging from civil rights to gay rights to opposing apartheid, the Vietnam War and ending poverty.

As chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Warren led a court that decided multiple historic rulings on civil rights cases.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign took protest to a whole new level in 1968 with a tent city that operated as a town.

The black codes effectively continued enslavement for African Americans by restricting their rights and exploiting their labor.

Nineteenth-century Black newspapers helped broadcast African American diversity and agency, lighting the way towards a post-slavery era.

As the Civil War was ending, recently freed Black people were promised land to start independent lives—but Lincoln's assassination led to that plan's demise.

Violent clashes in Kansas and beyond over whether or not to allow slavery in the new territory, deepened divisions ahead of the American Civil War.