African American Archives

Martin Luther King Jr.: Beyond “I Have a Dream”

Resources about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beyond the traditional narrative.

book cover showing a Black man in the back of an ambulance.

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics

Book — Non-fiction. By Kevin Hazzard. 2022. 336 pages.
The story of the Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America's first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world.

book cover showing photo of protesting Black Panthers, along with graphic imagery by BPP artist Emory Douglas.

Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by déqui kioni-sadiki and Matt Meyer. 2017. 648 pages.
The collective autobiography of the New York Panther 21, an infamous conspiracy case that highlighted government repression of Black liberation activists during the 1960s and 1970s.

Eatonville, Florida, road sign entering the city

Aug. 15, 1887: All-Black Town of Eatonville Incorporated

Eatonville, Florida is the oldest Black-incorporated municipality in the United States, incorporated toward the end of the Reconstruction era.

July 16, 1949: Groveland Four Arrested

Four African Americans were brutally beaten and arrested after being falsely accused of a crime in Groveland, Florida.

April 5, 1866: Black Grocers Protest Taxes Supporting Confederates

Robert Williams and other Black grocers wrote a letter to the Florida Freedmen’s Bureau calling for an end to high taxes levied against them to support former Confederates.

Mary McLeod Bethune, pictured in the 1920s, when her school became a co-ed institution and she became the president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Fall, 1922: Mary McLeod Bethune Confronts Klan to Defend Black Voting Rights

Mary McLeod Bethune faced off against the Ku Klux Klan in defense of Black voting rights in Daytona, Florida.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Understanding the Organizing Tradition

Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin and Jeanne Theoharis. 6 pages.
This lesson expands students’ knowledge of how Black Montgomery secured a victory in the 1955–56 bus boycott by asking them to pay close attention to activists’ tactics — and what they did as white resistance mounted.

Organizing Against Racial and Sexual Violence: Rosa Parks’ Life-Long Pursuit of Justice

Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin, Jeanne Theoharis, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 7 pages.
In this activity, students investigate Rosa Parks’ activism — and the gender and racial injustice to which it was a response — before and after her famous bus refusal.

book cover showing African American school child on stage holding a microphone.

How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

Picture Book. By Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. 2023. 40 pages.
The story of eighth grader MacNolia Cox, the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee, and the racism she faced during her journey to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

That Flag

Picture Book. By Tameka Fryer Brown. Illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. 2023. 40 pages.
Learn about the history of the Confederate flag, the myths and the reality, through the story of two young girls.

Newspaper following the Miami Riots of 1980.

May 17, 1980: Miami Riots Begin

Following the acquittal of four Miami police officers in the brutal murder of Arthur McDuffie, Black residents rose up in protest at the injustice of these acquittals.

late April 1821: U.S. Attack on Maroon Community at Angola

After becoming governor of Florida in 1821, Andrew Jackson attacked the native and Black maroon community at Angola.

Jan. 23, 1873: Jonathan C. Gibbs Named Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction

One of the most prominent Black officeholders in Florida during the Reconstruction era, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs held the positions of Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction.

April 19, 1960: Attempted Assassination of Nashville NAACP Attorney

Famed civil rights lawyer and politician Z. Alexander Looby’s North Nashville home was dynamited in an assassination attempt.

I’ll Take You There: Exploring Nashville’s Social Justice Sites

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Amie Thurber and Learotha Williams. 2021. 300 pages.
An exploration of Nashville's social justice sites and people's history, celebrating the power of counternarratives as a tool to resist injustice.

March 8, 1971: Griggs v. Duke Power Co. Court Ruling

In 1966, 14 Black employees filed a complaint with the EEOC claiming that they were discriminated against in hiring and promotion at a power plant in North Carolina. Five years later, the Supreme Court delivered its landmark unanimous ruling prohibiting discriminatory practices by employers.

Detail of book cover showing Black laborers and families walking down a dirt road.

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class

Book — Non-fiction. By Blair L. M. Kelley. 2023. 352 pages.
This book uses personal narratives to highlight the community and networks of resistance that Black laborers built in the face of racism and segregation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. 2023. 220 pages.
A collection of critical voices from the Black radical tradition that provides access to a history that is still being suppressed today.

Four young boys standing on the sidewalk of an empty street.

Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington, D.C.

Film. By Sabiyha Prince and Samuel George. 2023. 50 minutes.
This documentary examines the history and impact of redevelopment on African American communities, looking at Barry Farm in Washington D.C. in particular.

During the 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, the African American community organized free carpools, enabling protestors to go about their daily business while simultaneously showing they would no longer accept second-class citizenship.

June 18, 1953: Baton Rouge Bus Boycott Begins

Black leaders in Baton Rouge, Louisiana formed the United Defense League (UDL) to protest bus segregation and persuaded thousands of Black residents to boycott buses until an agreed upon compromise was met.

An account of enslaved people's revolts, 1600s–1800s.

Dec. 25, 1521: Enslaved People Revolt in Santo Domingo

Enslaved people on a Santo Domingo sugar plantation owned by the son of Christopher Columbus attempted to free themselves and take over the land in the earliest recorded slave uprising in the Americas.

book cover showing women protesting during the March on Washington.

More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Book — Non-fiction. By Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long. 2023. 272 pages.
A look at the March on Washington through a wider lens, using Black newspaper reports as a primary resource, recognizing the overlooked work of socialist organizers and Black women protesters, and repositioning this momentous day as radical in its roots, methods, demands, and results.

Dec. 3, 1860: Frederick Douglass Gives Speech on John Brown

In his 1860 speech commemorating radical abolitionist John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Frederick Douglass argued that slavery would only end if the slave owner feared the violent retribution of the enslaved.

July 18, 1890: George Washington Williams Pens Letter Exposing Atrocities in the Congo

Hoping to spark a movement in protest of the Belgian government’s role in its African colony, historian George Washington Williams wrote an open letter to Belgian King Leopold II exposing atrocities in the Congo.

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