Black History: Facts, People & Month (Video)

Topics

Featured

Black History: Timeline of the Post-Civil Rights Era

From the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., to the 2008 election of Barack Obama, to widespread global protests declaring Black Lives Matter in 2020, African American history in the United States has been filled with both triumph and strife. Here’s a look at some of the notable milestones that took place from the […]

Loving v. Virginia

What Is Miscegenation? The Loving case was a challenge to centuries of American laws banning miscegenation, i.e., any marriage or interbreeding among different races. Restrictions on miscegenation existed as early as the colonial era, and of the 50 U.S. states, all but nine states had a law against the practice at some point in their […]

TOPSHOT-BIO-MARTIN LUTHER KING-MARCH ON WASHINGTONTOPSHOT - The civil rights leader Martin Luther King (C) waves to supporters 28 August 1963 on the Mall in Washington DC (Washington Monument in background) during the "March on Washington". - King said the march was "the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of the United States." Martin Luther King was assassinated on 04 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history. AFP PHOTO (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

July 26, 1948: President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, a […]

Langston Hughes

Early Life Hughes was born February 1, 1902 (although some evidence shows it may have been 1901), in Joplin, Missouri, to James and Caroline Hughes. When he was a young boy, his parents divorced, and, after his father moved to Mexico, and his mother, whose maiden name was Langston, sought work elsewhere, he was raised […]

Stories

See All

Map of Tulsa; Greenwood Black Wall Street

Featured

Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’ Flourished as a Self-Contained Hub in Early 1900s

Greenwood Avenue featured luxury shops, restaurants, movie theaters, a library, pool halls and nightclubs.

Engraving shows an agent from the Freedmen's Bureau as he separates two groups of armed men, one comprised of white men and the other of freed slaves, 1868. The Freedmen's Bureau was created to help refugees from the American Civil War.

The Short-Lived Promise of ’40 Acres and a Mule’

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.

Henry Ossawa Tanner and his painting "The Annunciation" (1898)

5 Groundbreaking 19th-Century African American Artists

Despite the virulent racism of their time, these talented African American artists found success—and left lasting legacies.

The 1970 FBI Wanted poster for Angela Davis.

How Angela Davis Ended Up on the FBI Most Wanted List

The scholar and activist was sought and then arrested by the FBI in 1970—and the experience informed her life’s work.

Videos

See All

1:51 minTV-PG

Play

Featured

Coretta Scott King

After her husband became pastor, Coretta Scott King joined the choir at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Hear two of her friends and members of the congregation remember Mrs. King’s legacy and her voice.

1:01 minTV-PG

Bree Newsome on Lynda Blackmon Lowery, a Black History Legend

Bree Newsome discusses the impact that everyday citizens like Lynda Blackmon Lowrey had on the civil rights movement in honor of Black History Month.

Watch now

3:41 minTV-PG

How the NAACP Fights Racial Discrimination

How did the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) get its start? What needs and issues does it address, and what has it accomplished since it was founded in 1909?

Watch now