African American Archives

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.

Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay

Book — Fiction. By Kelly McWilliams. 2023. 320 pages.
This young adult novel introduces readers to the history of slavery and its legacy today, challenging the Lost Cause narrative offered to visitors at most plantations (prison labor camps).

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.

A photograph of the Tougaloo Nine, Black activists who staged a read-in at the public library to protest segregation.

March 27, 1961: Jackson, Mississippi Library Sit-In

Nine Tougaloo College students and members of the Jackson Youth Council of the NAACP staged a sit-in to protest segregation at the Jackson Public Library in 1961 and were subsequently arrested.

A sign for the Audubon Library Summer Reading Program at the library's St. Helena Parish branch beckons residents in Greensburg.

March 7, 1964: St. Helena Four Stage Sit-In at Louisiana Library

Four Black teenagers tried to enter the whites-only St. Helena branch of the Audubon Regional Library in Greensburg, Louisiana. Instead, the library closed. Undeterred, the St. Helena Four continued to try to desegregate the local library and other segregated facilities.

On July 16, 1960, seven students from Sterling High along with college freshman, Jesse Jackson, entered the library and were arrested. This group became known as the Greenville Eight.

July 16, 1960: Greenville Eight Stage Read-In at Local Library

In an act of civil disobedience against the whites-only Greenville County Public Library, eight young Black people entered the library, began reading, and were subsequently arrested. They became known as the Greenville Eight, and the library finally desegregated months later after many legal battles.

a statue of three boys holding up the one in the middle

Jan. 1, 1900: Notorious Dozier School for Boys Opens

The infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida swirled with allegations of cruelty, rape, and physical abuse for nearly all of its 111 years.

colorful but haunting painting of a small reform school surrounded by trees and shadows

The Reformatory: A Novel

Book — Historical Fiction. By Tananarive Due. 2023. 576 pages.
Follow twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., who, after a small indiscretion, journeys into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Reconsidering Reparations

Book — Non-fiction. By Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. 2022. 280 pages.
Táíwò’s take on reparations and distributive justice has wide implications for views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.

July 4, 1940: Black World’s Fair Held in Chicago

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ending of slavery in the United States, the Black World’s Fair, also known as the American Negro Exposition, was held at the Chicago Coliseum from July through September 1940.

Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction

Article. By Ana Rosado, Gideon Cohn-Postar, and Mimi Eisen. 2022. 44 pages.
The report includes assessments of education standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, along with findings and recommendations for how to improve instruction on Reconstruction.

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