Mary Ellen Pleasant, an African American entrepreneur and abolitionist, is renowned for her efforts in the Underground Railroad and her support of the abolitionist movement. She used her considerable resources…
Tag: Civil Rights
Ben Chester White, Gunned Down By The KKK
Ben Chester White (January 5, 1899 – June 10, 1966) was an African-American caretaker in Natchez, Mississippi. White had spent his entire life as a caretaker on the Carter family…
The Niagara Movement, A Precursor to the NAACP
The Niagara Movement, founded in 1905, pioneered the early 20th-century fight for African American civil rights. It set forth a bold and uncompromising vision for equality, advocating for African Americans’…
Invisible Shackles: The Impact of Black Codes on African Americans In The Years Immediately Following the Civil War.
After the Civil War, as the nation grappled with the aftermath of slavery, the question of freed Black people’s status in the South remained unresolved. The Black Codes were created,…
Forced Labor and Legal Loopholes: Conviction and Forced Labor After the 13th Amendment and Vagrancy Act of 1866
The Vagrancy Act of 1866 and the 13th Amendment are connected through their impact on the legal status and treatment of individuals considered vagrants or prisoners, particularly in the context…
The 6888th Central Postal Battalion, Six Triple Eight. “No mail, no morale.”
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion comprised entirely of African American women, faced discrimination and adversity head-on while delivering an essential service to WWII troops overseas. In the early 1940s,…
George Latimer and The Fugitive Slave Act
George Latimer was born into slavery in Virginia, but he managed to escape to Massachusetts in 1842. However, in 1848, he was recaptured in Boston. Latimer was faced with the…
Remembering Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells, a remarkable figure in American history, was born during slavery in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Wells’ parents and one brother succumbed to yellow fever. After these…
Joseph Hayne Rainey, First African American to serve in the United States House of Representatives.
Joseph Hayne Rainey was born into slavery on June 1832 in Georgetown, South Carolina. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, Joseph Rainey, like many other enslaved individuals, saw…
The Harlem Renaissance Illuminated the richness of the human experience.
A remarkable period in African American History was known as the Harlem Renaissance. This cultural movement, which took place in the 1920s, was a vibrant and transformative period in African…