African American Archives

The North Star (News Clipping) | Zinn Education Project

Dec. 3, 1847: North Star Newspaper Launched

Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany launched the abolitionist North Star newspaper.

Dec. 5, 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott Began

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the most powerful examples of organizing and social change in U.S. history.

Jan. 9, 1864: Sgt. William Walker Found Guilty of Mutiny

Sgt. Walker was convicted of mutiny and killed, one of nineteen Union soldiers executed by the Union army for mutiny during the Civil War, fourteen of whom were Black.

Jan. 23, 1964: 24th Amendment on Poll Tax Ratified

The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified.

The Neutral Ground

Film. Directed by C. J. Hunt. 2021. 82 minutes.
A co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media. A student-friendly documentary on the fight over Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause narrative.

Educational Reconstruction (Book) | Zinn Education Project

Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865-1890

Book — Non-fiction. By Hilary Green. 2016. 272 pages.
An in-depth look at postwar African American education and the gains of Reconstruction.

April 23, 1866: Freedmen Demand Equal Medical Treatment

William Beverly Nash and several others asked the federal government to intervene to ensure equal medical treatment for all.

Nov. 7, 1861: The Port Royal Experiment Initiated

The Union Army occupied the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, freeing approximately 10,000 people who had been enslaved, starting what became known as the Port Royal Experiment.

portrait of Detroit educator Fannie Richards

May 12, 1869: Detroit Educator Fannie Richards Helps to Desegregate Michigan Schools

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in favor of school desegregation in the case of Joseph Workman v. the Detroit Board of Education, almost 90 years before the United States’ landmark Brown v. Board of Education.

The Way to Freedom: Selma and the Making of a Movement

Film. National Park Service. 2020. 23 minutes.
Documentary about the role of young people in the voting rights movement in Alabama in the 1960s.

Jan. 1, 1863: Tunis Campbell Commissioned for Port Royal

Tunis Campbell, who assisted in the Port Royal Experiment to assist freed people during Reconstruction, was an abolitionist, state senator, and justice of the peace.

Dec. 1, 1865: Shaw University Established

Shaw University was established as a co-ed campus with support from private donors and the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. It is the second oldest HBCU in the South.

Marriage certificate of Benjamin Manson and Sarah White, April 19, 1866 | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

April 19, 1866: Couple Receives Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Certificate

Benjamin Berry Manson and Sarah Ann Benton White, formerly enslaved in Tennessee, receive an official marriage certificate from the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction

Book — Non-fiction. By Jim Downs. 2015. 280 pages.
Historical analysis of the illness and suffering endured by African Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Teaching Activity by Jim Downs

Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century

Book — Non-fiction. By Tera W. Hunter. 2019. 416 pages.
A comprehensive history of African American marriages in the nineteenth century.

Teaching Activity by Tera W. Hunter

Jan. 10, 1854: Woman Jailed for Teaching Free Black Children to Read

A judge in Norfolk, Virginia, sentenced a white woman, Margaret Douglass, to one month in jail for teaching free Black children to read.

Jan. 5, 2021: Grassroots Organizing Shifts Balance of Power in Senate

In 2021, two new Democratic lawmakers from Georgia were elected to the U.S. Senate, one of whom is only the 11th African American senator in U.S. history.

Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (YA Edition)

Book — Non-fiction. By Candacy Taylor. 2022. 272 pages.
This book chronicles the history of the Green Book, which was published from 1936 to 1966 and was the “Black travel guide to America.”

Teaching Activity by Candacy Taylor

Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America

Book — Non-fiction. By Selene Castrovilla. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. 2022. 40 pages.
A Civil War story about a man who seizes his freedom from slavery and teams up with a Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates.

Teaching Activity by Selene Castrovilla (Illustrated by E. B. Lewis)

mug shot of Wobbly Ben Fletcher, book cover

Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Peter Cole. 2021. 352 pages.
This biography details the life of Black IWW organizer Ben Fletcher and the working class struggles he took part in.

Teaching Activity by Peter Cole (editor)

W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America

Book — Non-fiction. By the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at University of Massachusetts Amherst. 2018. 144 pages.
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits is an informative and provocative history, data, and graphic design book first presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Teaching Activity by by the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at University of Massachusetts Amherst and edited by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert

Who Killed Reconstruction? A Trial Role Play

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Adam Sanchez, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Article by Adam Sanchez. 2022. Rethinking Schools
A role play about the demise of Reconstruction that helps students get beyond the question “Was Reconstruction a success or failure?”

Teaching Activity by By Adam Sanchez, Illustrator: Nate Kitch

March 21, 1919: Associated Negro Press Launched

Entrepreneur Claude Albert Barnett launched the Associated Negro Press, or ANP, a nationwide and international news service that focused on current events, feature stories, opinions and other information important to African Americans but usually ignored by or unknown to white-owned mainstream media.

March 30, 1886: Black Civil War Veterans Secure a Cemetery in Norfolk

The West Point Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia was established to provide a burial area for Black soldiers and sailors who fought to preserve the Union.

April 17, 1944: Modjeska Simkins Challenges SC Governor to a Debate

Prompted by South Carolina’s all-white political primary system, civil rights advocate Modjeska Monteith Simkins wrote a letter to Governor Olin D. Johnston of South Carolina challenging him to a debate on white supremacy.

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