African American Archives

Seizing Freedom Podcast

Podcast. Written and hosted by Kidada E. Williams. 2021.
A Black history podcast tells stories "drawn from archives of voices from American history that have been muted time and time again."

Black Was the Ink

Book — Fiction. By Michelle Coles. Illustrations by Justin Johnson. 2021. 368 pages.
A powerful coming-of-age story and an eye-opening exploration of the Reconstruction era.

Dorie Ladner

Profile. Dorie Ladner (June 28, 1942-March 11, 2024) was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) veteran, social worker, and lifelong activist.

Shirley Chisholm | Zinn Education Project

Nov. 30, 1924: Shirley Chisholm Born

Born on this day, Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress

Slave pension broadside | Zinn Education Project

Nov. 28, 1898: First National Convention of the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association

The Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association was founded with a dual mission to organize mutual aid for its members and to pass federal pension legislation that would compensate every formerly enslaved person.

Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance

Book — Non-fiction. By Mia Bay. 2021. 400 pages.
From stagecoaches and trains to buses, cars, and planes, this book explores racial restrictions on transportation and resistance to the injustice.

Dec. 28, 1960: Black Farmers in Tennessee Evicted for Registering to Vote

Black sharecroppers were evicted by white landowners simply for exercising their right to register to vote.

Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men

Book — Non-fiction. By Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace. 2021. 144 pages.
Scipio Africanus Jones — a self-taught attorney who was born enslaved — leads a momentous series of court cases to save twelve Black men who'd been unjustly sentenced to death.

Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote

Picture book. By Alice Faye Duncan and illustrated by Charly Palmer. 2022. 64 pages.
This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote.

Rosa Parks Highlander School | Zinn Education Project

Dec. 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dec. 4, 1969: Black Panther Party Members Assassinated

Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by police and FBI agents in Chicago, Illinois.

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.

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. 6, 1865: 13th Amendment Ratified

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially ended the institution of slavery.

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.

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