Introduction

Pete Souza—Official White House Photo

The story of African Americans in the United States is one of both limitless suffering and soaring hope. Two and a half centuries of slavery and segregation prevented Black people from exercising the rights of citizenship taken for granted by white Americans. Nevertheless, African Americans persevered. They built universities and achieved heights in all spheres of activity, from arts and entertainment to aviation and science.

Below is a collection of links to articles that explore various aspects of African American history. A selection of biographies celebrates the achievements of many individual African Americans. A subject browse provides lists of articles on people, places, and events related to the following fields:

  • Civil Rights, Law, and Society
  • Government, Politics, and the Military
  • Literature and Journalism
  • Performing Arts: Comedy, Film, Television, and Theater
  • Performing Arts: Music and Dance
  • Science, Medicine, Technology, and Education
  • Slavery, Abolitionism, and Anti-Black Violence
  • Sports
  • Visual Arts

A collection of Primary Source Documents offers a variety of responses to the Black American experience written as the issues of the day unfolded.

Finally, all the featured articles and primary source documents can be accessed via an alphabetical list: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

See also the African American History Timeline for a chronology highlighting relevant key events.

Subject Browse

Civil Rights, Law, and Society

Julian Wasser

AP Images

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Displayed by permission of The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
  • Black Americans, or African Americans
  • Abernathy, Ralph David
  • affirmative action
  • African American History Month
  • Allen, Richard
  • Baker, Ella
  • Bakke decision
  • Black codes
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Black power
  • Black Wall Street
  • Bond, Julian
  • Bridges, Ruby
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: decision written by Earl Warren (primary source, 1954)
  • Bruce, John E.: African American Plea for Organized Resistance to White Men (primary source, 1889)
  • buffalo soldier
  • Bunche, Ralph Johnson
  • Burke, Tarana
  • Carmichael, Stokely: Black Power (primary source, 1966)
  • Civil Rights Act
  • civil rights movement
  • Cleaver, Eldridge
  • Davis, Angela
  • Detroit Riot of 1967
  • Douglass, Frederick
  • Douglass, Frederick: The Color Line in America (primary source 1883)
  • Dred Scott decision
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford: opinion written by Roger B. Taney (primary source, 1857)
  • Du Bois, W.E.B.
  • Du Bois, W.E.B.: What African Americans Want (primary source, 1903)
  • Du Sable, Jean-Baptist-Point
  • DuSable Museum of African American History
  • Edelman, Marian Wright
  • Edmund Pettus Bridge
  • Evers, Medgar
  • Farmer, James
  • Fifteenth Amendment
  • Fourteenth Amendment
  • Freedom Rides
  • Garvey, Marcus
  • Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.: The Trial of O.J. Simpson (primary source, 1995)
  • Great Migration
  • Green Book, the
  • Greensboro sit-in
  • Gregory, Dick
  • Hamer, Fannie Lou
  • Height, Dorothy
  • Hemings, Sally
  • Henson, Matthew Alexander
  • Hill, Anita
  • Holder, Eric
  • Hooks, Benjamin L.
  • Jackson, Jesse
  • Jackson, Jesse: Speech to the Democratic National Convention (primary source, 1992)
  • Jim Crow law
  • Johns, Barbara
  • Johnson, Marsha P.
  • Jordan, Vernon
  • Kaepernick, Colin
  • Keckley, Elizabeth
  • Kendi, Ibram X.
  • King, Coretta Scott
  • King, Martin Luther, Jr.
  • Ku Klux Klan
  • Kwanzaa
  • Lawson, James
  • Lewis, John
  • Little Rock Nine
  • Loving v. Virginia
  • Lynch, Loretta
  • Malcolm X
  • Malcolm X: Advice to the Youth of Mississippi (primary source, 1964)
  • March on Washington
  • Marshall, Thurgood
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
  • Meredith, James
  • Mfume, Kweisi
  • Montgomery bus boycott
  • Murray, Pauli
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
  • National Urban League
  • Niagara Movement
  • Parks, Rosa
  • Plessy v. Ferguson
  • Plessy v. Ferguson: opinions written by Henry B. Brown and John Marshall Harlan (primary source, 1896)
  • poll tax
  • racism
  • Reconstruction
  • Red Summer
  • Reeves, Bass
  • reparations
  • restorative justice
  • Ruffin, Josephine
  • Rustin, Bayard
  • Scottsboro Case
  • segregation
  • Selma March
  • Seneca Village
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  • Steele, Shelby; and Jacob, John E.: The State of Black America (primary source, 1988)
  • Thirteenth Amendment
  • Thomas, Clarence
  • Till, Emmett
  • Truth, Sojourner
  • Truth, Sojourner: What Time of Night It Is (primary source, 1853)
  • Tubman, Harriet
  • Tuskegee syphilis study
  • voter ID law
  • Voting Rights Act
  • Walker, Madam C.J.
  • Walker, Maggie Lena Draper
  • Washington, Booker T.
  • Washington, Booker T.: The Road to African American Progress (primary source, 1895)
  • Watts Riots of 1965
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell: Lynching and the Excuse for It (primary source, 1901)
  • West, Cornel
  • White, Walter
  • Wilkins, Roy
  • York
  • Young, Andrew
  • Young, Whitney M., Jr.

Government, Politics, and the Military

White House

Frank Wolfe/Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo

Toni Frissell Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-11758)

© JStone/Shutterstock.com
  • Black Americans, or African Americans: "Political Progress"
  • Barry, Marion
  • Bond, Julian
  • Bradley, Tom
  • Brooke, Edward
  • Brown, Ron
  • Carney, William H.
  • Cheswell, Wentworth
  • Chisholm, Shirley
  • Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Jr.
  • Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Sr.
  • Dellums, Ron
  • Dinkins, David
  • Elders, Joycelyn
  • Harlem Hellfighters
  • Harris, Kamala
  • Harris, Patricia Roberts
  • Holder, Eric
  • Jackson, Jesse
  • Jackson, Jesse: Speech to the Democratic National Convention (primary source, 1992)
  • Jackson, Lisa
  • Jackson, Maynard
  • Jordan, Barbara C.
  • Jordan, Vernon
  • Lafayette, James
  • Lightfoot, Lori
  • Menard, John Willis
  • Mfume, Kweisi
  • Moseley Braun, Carol
  • Obama, Barack
  • Obama, Barack: Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic Convention (primary source, 2004)
  • Obama, Barack: A More Perfect Union (primary source, 2008)
  • Obama, Barack: Victory Speech (primary source, 2008)
  • Obama, Barack: Inaugural Address (primary source, 2009)
  • Obama, Michelle
  • Powell, Colin
  • Revels, Hiram R.
  • Rice, Condoleezza
  • Robinson, John C.
  • Savage, Gus
  • Stokes, Carl
  • Tuskegee Airmen
  • Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
  • Warnock, Raphael
  • Washington, Harold
  • Weaver, Robert C.
  • Wilder, Douglas
  • Young, Andrew
  • Young, Coleman

Literature and Journalism

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USW3-030278-D)

Eduardo Montes-Bradley

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digineg. no. LC-USW38-000698-D)

PRNewsFoto/XM Satellite Radio/AP Images

M. Stan Reaves—REX/Shutterstock.com

Paras Griffin/Getty Images
  • Alexander, Kwame
  • Angelou, Maya
  • Baker, Augusta
  • Baldwin, James
  • Baraka, Amiri
  • Bass, Charlotta Spears
  • Bates, Daisy
  • Bontemps, Arna
  • Bradley, Ed
  • Brooks, Gwendolyn
  • Brown, William Wells
  • Butler, Octavia
  • Chesnutt, Charles W.
  • Chicago Defender
  • Collier, Bryan
  • Craft, Jerry
  • Cullen, Countee
  • Curtis, Christopher Paul
  • Delany, Martin R.
  • Dove, Rita
  • Dunbar, Paul Laurence
  • Ellison, Ralph
  • Franklin, John Hope
  • Frazier, E. Franklin
  • Fuller, Charles
  • Gaines, Ernest J.
  • Giovanni, Nikki
  • Gorman, Amanda
  • Haley, Alex
  • Hansberry, Lorraine
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Harper, Frances E.W.
  • Hayden, Carla D.
  • Hughes, Langston
  • Hughes, Langston: The Negro Artist and the Cultural Mountain (primary source, 1926)
  • Hurston, Zora Neale
  • Jacobs, Harriet A.
  • Jemisin, N.K.
  • Johnson, James Weldon
  • Johnson, John H.
  • Jordan, June
  • Kincaid, Jamaica
  • Locke, Alain
  • Logan, Rayford W.
  • McKay, Claude
  • McKissack, Patricia
  • McMillan, Terry
  • Morrison, Toni
  • Motley, Willard
  • Myers, Walter Dean
  • Naylor, Gloria
  • Okorafor, Nnedi
  • Petry, Ann
  • Reed, Ishmael
  • Reynolds, Jason
  • Rowan, Carl
  • Shadd, Mary Ann
  • Smith, Tracy K.
  • Taylor, Mildred
  • Thomas, Angie
  • Tolson, Melvin
  • Toomer, Jean
  • Walker, Alice
  • Watson, Renée
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
  • West, Cornel
  • Wheatley, Phillis
  • Whitehead, Colson
  • Williams, Saul
  • Wilson, August
  • Woodson, Jacqueline
  • Wright, Richard
  • Yerby, Frank

Performing Arts: Comedy, Film, Television, and Theater

Copyright © 1969 Columbia Pictures Corporation; all rights reserved.

© Kevork Djansezian—AP/REX/Shutterstock

© Universal Pictures, all rights reserved

© Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Entertainment

John Salangsang—BFA/Shutterstock.com
  • Black Americans, or African Americans: "Television and Film"
  • Aldridge, Ira Frederick
  • Ali, Mahershala
  • Bailey, Pearl
  • Baker, Josephine
  • Banks, Tyra
  • Battle, Kathleen
  • Belafonte, Harry
  • Berry, Halle
  • Black Panther
  • Boseman, Chadwick
  • Brown, Ruth
  • Cornelius, Don
  • Cosby, Bill
  • Dandridge, Dorothy
  • Davis, Ossie
  • Davis, Sammy, Jr.
  • Davis, Viola
  • Dee, Ruby
  • DuVernay, Ava
  • Fishburne, Laurence
  • Foxx, Jamie
  • Freeman, Morgan
  • Fuller, Charles
  • Glover, Danny
  • Glover, Donald
  • Goldberg, Whoopi
  • Gossett, Louis, Jr.
  • Gregory, Dick
  • Hall, Arsenio
  • Hansberry, Lorraine
  • Horne, Lena
  • Jackson, Samuel L.
  • Jones, James Earl
  • Kitt, Eartha
  • Lawrence, Martin
  • Lee, Spike
  • Mac, Bernie
  • McDaniel, Hattie
  • McDonald, Audra
  • Menken, Adah Isaacs
  • Mo'Nique
  • Murphy, Eddie
  • Norman, Jessye
  • O'Neal, Frederick
  • Poitier, Sidney
  • Pryor, Richard
  • Queen Latifah
  • Rashad, Phylicia
  • Rhimes, Shonda
  • Robeson, Paul
  • Rock, Chris
  • RuPaul
  • Smith, Will
  • Snipes, Wesley
  • Washington, Denzel
  • Waters, Ethel
  • Williams, Bert
  • Winfrey, Oprah

Performing Arts: Music and Dance

Links to articles below are grouped under Dance and under various styles of music: Blues; Classical and Opera; Gospel and Spirituals; Jazz; Pop Vocal; Rap and Hip-Hop; Rhythm and Blues and Soul; and Rock. See also Black Americans, or African Americans: "Music" and articles on styles of music, such as blues, gospel, hip-hop, house, jazz, rap, rhythm and blues, soul, and spirituals.

Dance

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (CC BY-SA 2.0)
  • Ailey, Alvin, Jr.
  • Baker, Josephine
  • Copeland, Misty
  • Dunham, Katherine
  • Glover, Savion
  • Hines, Gregory
  • Jones, Bill T.
  • Mitchell, Arthur
  • Nicholas Brothers
  • Robinson, Bill

Blues

Great Museums Television
  • Dixon, Willie
  • Guy, Buddy
  • Handy, W.C.
  • Hooker, John Lee
  • Howlin' Wolf
  • Jefferson, Blind Lemon
  • Johnson, Robert
  • Johnson, Tommy
  • King, Albert
  • King, B.B.
  • Leadbelly
  • Lewis, Meade
  • Little Walter
  • Patton, Charley
  • Rainey, Ma
  • Smith, Bessie
  • Thornton, Big Mama
  • Walker, T-Bone
  • Washington, Dinah
  • Waters, Ethel
  • Waters, Muddy

Classical and Opera

Ed Reinke—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
  • Anderson, Marian
  • Battle, Kathleen
  • Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel
  • Conrad, Barbara Smith
  • Freeman, Harry
  • Hayes, Roland
  • Johnson, James P.
  • Jones, Matilda Sissieretta
  • Norman, Jessye
  • Price, Leontyne
  • Still, William Grant
  • Verrett, Shirley
  • Warfield, William Caesar

Gospel and Spirituals

  • Burleigh, Harry Thacker
  • Dorsey, Thomas A.
  • Jackson, Mahalia
  • Odetta
  • Robeson, Paul
  • Tharpe, Sister Rosetta

Jazz

Pictorial Press/Alamy

Reprinted with permission of DownBeat magazine

Votavafoto from London Daily Express/Pictorial Parade
  • Armstrong, Louis
  • Art Ensemble of Chicago
  • Ayler, Albert
  • Basie, Count
  • Blake, Eubie
  • Blakey, Art
  • Blanton, Jimmy
  • Brown, Clifford
  • Brown, Ray
  • Byas, Don
  • Calloway, Cab
  • Carter, Benny
  • Christian, Charlie
  • Clayton, Buck
  • Coleman, Ornette
  • Coltrane, John
  • Dameron, Tadd
  • Davis, Miles
  • Dodds, Johnny
  • Eckstine, Billy
  • Eldridge, Roy
  • Ellington, Duke
  • Fitzgerald, Ella
  • Garner, Erroll
  • Gillespie, Dizzy
  • Gordon, Dexter
  • Griffin, Johnny
  • Hampton, Lionel
  • Hancock, Herbie
  • Hawkins, Coleman
  • Henderson, Fletcher
  • Hines, Earl
  • Hodges, Johnny
  • Holiday, Billie
  • Jackson, Milt
  • Jones, Jo
  • Jones, Quincy
  • Joplin, Scott
  • Jordan, Louis
  • Lewis, John
  • Marsalis, Wynton
  • Mingus, Charles
  • Modern Jazz Quartet
  • Monk, Thelonious
  • Montgomery, Wes
  • Morton, Jelly Roll
  • Navarro, Fats
  • Noone, Jimmie
  • Oliver, King
  • Ory, Kid
  • Page, Walter
  • Parker, Charlie
  • Powell, Bud
  • Price, Sammy
  • Roach, Max
  • Rollins, Sonny
  • Shepp, Archie
  • Shorter, Wayne
  • Silver, Horace
  • Stitt, Sonny
  • Tatum, Art
  • Taylor, Cecil
  • Thompson, Lucky
  • Vaughan, Sarah
  • Waller, Fats
  • Webb, Chick
  • Webster, Ben
  • Williams, Cootie
  • Williams, Mary Lou
  • Young, Lester

Pop Vocal

Oliver F. Atkins—White House Photo/Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

Doug Pizac—AP/Shutterstock.com
  • Bailey, Pearl
  • Belafonte, Harry
  • Carey, Mariah
  • Cole, Nat King
  • Davis, Sammy, Jr.
  • Fitzgerald, Ella
  • Holiday, Billie
  • Horne, Lena
  • Houston, Whitney
  • Jackson 5, the
  • Jackson, Michael
  • Kitt, Eartha
  • McFerrin, Bobby
  • Ross, Diana
  • Vaughan, Sarah
  • Warwick, Dionne

Rap and Hip-Hop

Richard Isaac—REX/Shutterstock.com

PRNewsFoto/VH1/AP Images
  • Chance the Rapper
  • Common
  • De La Soul
  • Diddy
  • Dr. Dre
  • Elliott, Missy
  • Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
  • Hill, Lauryn
  • JAY-Z
  • Lamar, Kendrick
  • Lil Wayne
  • LL Cool J
  • Ludacris
  • Minaj, Nicki
  • Nas
  • OutKast
  • Public Enemy
  • Queen Latifah
  • Run-D.M.C.
  • Shakur, Tupac
  • Snoop Dogg
  • Timbaland
  • West, Kanye

Rhythm and Blues and Soul

ITV/REX/Shutterstock.com

© Eleftherios Damianidis/Dreamstime.com

PRNewsFoto/Ford Motor Company/AP Images
  • Baker, Anita
  • Baker, Lavern
  • Ballard, Hank
  • Beyoncé
  • Blige, Mary J.
  • Brown, James
  • Brown, Ruth
  • Charles, Ray
  • Cole, Natalie
  • Cooke, Sam
  • Four Tops, the
  • Franklin, Aretha
  • Gaye, Marvin
  • Gordy, Berry, Jr.
  • Green, Al
  • Holland-Dozier-Holland
  • Hudson, Jennifer
  • Isley Brothers, the
  • Jackson, Janet
  • James, Etta
  • John, Little Willie
  • Keys, Alicia
  • Knight, Gladys, and the Pips
  • Kool and the Gang
  • Legend, John
  • Martha and the Vandellas
  • Marvelettes, the
  • Motown
  • Orioles, the
  • Parliament-Funkadelic
  • Pendergrass, Teddy
  • Pickett, Wilson
  • Pointer Sisters
  • Prince
  • Redding, Otis
  • Robinson, Smokey, and the Miracles
  • Shirelles, the
  • Soul Train
  • Summer, Donna
  • Supremes, the
  • Temptations, the
  • Turner, Tina
  • Usher
  • Vandross, Luther
  • Wilson, Jackie
  • Wonder, Stevie

Rock

Dezo Hoffmann/REX/Shutterstock
  • Berry, Chuck
  • Diddley, Bo
  • Domino, Fats
  • Hendrix, Jimi
  • Little Richard
  • Platters, the

Science, Medicine, Technology, and Education

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

U.S. News and World Report Magazine Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ds-00592)

NASA

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-03089)
  • Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University
  • Alabama State University
  • Alcorn State University
  • Banneker, Benjamin
  • Banneker, Benjamin: Reflections of a Free Black Man (primary source, 1792)
  • Barnett, Marguerite Ross
  • Barrett, Janie Porter
  • Benjamin, Regina
  • Berry, Mary Frances
  • Bethune, Mary McLeod
  • Bluford, Guion S., Jr.
  • Boykin, Otis
  • Butler, Selena Sloan
  • Carruthers, George R.
  • Carson, Ben
  • Carver, George Washington
  • Chicago State University
  • Clark Atlanta University
  • Cole, Johnnetta
  • Collins, Marva
  • Crummell, Alexander
  • Crumpler, Rebecca Lee
  • Delaware State University
  • District of Columbia, University of the
  • Drew, Charles Richard
  • Elders, Joycelyn
  • Fisk University
  • Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
  • Franklin, John Hope
  • Frazier, E. Franklin
  • Grambling State University
  • Hampton University
  • historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
  • Hope, John
  • Howard University
  • Jackson, Mary
  • Jemison, Mae
  • Johnson, Katherine
  • Jones, Frederick McKinley
  • Lacks, Henrietta
  • Langston University
  • Latimer, Lewis
  • Lincoln University
  • Matzeliger, Jan Ernst
  • McCoy, Elijah
  • Montague, Raye
  • Morehouse College
  • Morgan, Garrett
  • Morgan State University
  • Oberlin College
  • Patterson, Frederick Douglass
  • Satcher, David
  • South Carolina State University
  • Southern University
  • Spelman College
  • Tennessee State University
  • Texas Southern University
  • Turner, Charles Henry
  • Tuskegee syphilis study
  • Tuskegee University
  • Tyson, Neil deGrasse
  • Vaughan, Dorothy
  • Virginia State University
  • Washington, Booker T
  • Washington, Booker T.: The Road to African American Progress (primary source, 1895)
  • West, Gladys
  • Williams, Daniel Hale
  • Women: On Educating African American Women (primary source, 1827)
  • Woods, Granville T.
  • Woodson, Carter G.

Slavery, Abolitionism, and Anti-Black Violence

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C. (object no. 2008.10.4)

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

George Harper Houghton/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ds-05506)

Printed Ephemera Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (call no. Portfolio 186, Folder 43)

AP/Shutterstock.com

Visual Materials from the NAACP Records, Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-33793)

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Rose Baca/Getty Images
  • Black Americans, or African Americans: "Black Slavery in the United States" and "Free Blacks and Abolitionism"
  • 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
  • abolitionist movement
  • American Civil War
  • Amistad
  • Atlantic slave trade
  • Attucks, Crispus
  • Banneker, Benjamin: Reflections of a Free Black Man (primary source, 1792)
  • Brown, Henry "Box"
  • Brown, William Wells
  • Brown, William, Wells: Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (primary source, 1847)
  • Casor, John
  • Colfax Massacre
  • Compromise of 1850
  • Constitutional Convention
  • Detroit Race Riot of 1943
  • Douglass, Frederick
  • Douglass, Frederick: The Color Line in America (primary source, 1883)
  • Douglass, Frederick: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (primary source, 1845)
  • Dred Scott decision
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford: opinion written by Roger B. Taney (primary source, 1857)
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • Emancipation Proclamation (primary source, 1863)
  • Fugitive Slave Acts
  • Gabriel
  • Garrison, William Lloyd: The Dangers of Slavery (primary source, 1829)
  • Harlem race riot of 1964
  • Harper, Frances E.W.
  • Harpers Ferry
  • Jacobs, Harriet A.
  • Jennings, Thomas L.
  • Juneteenth
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Los Angeles Riots of 1992
  • lynching
  • Middle Passage
  • Missouri Compromise
  • New York slave rebellion of 1712
  • New York slave rebellion of 1741
  • Oberlin College
  • Opelousas Massacre
  • police brutality in the United States
  • Red Summer
  • reparations
  • Rosewood riot of 1923
  • slave codes
  • slave rebellions
  • slavery and serfdom
  • Springfield Race Riot
  • Stewart, Maria
  • Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom Defies Simon Legree (primary source, 1852)
  • Till, Emmett
  • Truth, Sojourner
  • Truth, Sojourner: What Time of Night It Is (primary source, 1853)
  • Tubman, Harriet
  • Tulsa race massacre of 1921
  • Turner, Nat
  • Turner, Nat: Confession (primary source, 1831)
  • Underground Railroad
  • Vesey, Denmark
  • Virginia Slave Laws (primary source, 1660–69)
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida B.: The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (primary source, 1895)
  • Wheatley, Phillis
  • Wilmot Proviso

Sports

Links to articles below are grouped by type of sport: Baseball; Basketball; Boxing; Football (American Gridiron); Golf; Speed Skating; Tennis; and Track and Field. See also Black Americans, or African Americans: "Sports."

Baseball

Pictorial Parade

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  • Aaron, Hank
  • Banks, Ernie
  • Bell, Cool Papa
  • Bonds, Barry
  • Brock, Lou
  • Campanella, Roy
  • Carew, Rod
  • Dandridge, Ray
  • Doby, Larry
  • Foster, Rube
  • Gibson, Bob
  • Gibson, Josh
  • Griffey, Ken, Jr.
  • Henderson, Rickey
  • Jackson, Reggie
  • Jenkins, Fergie
  • Leonard, Buck
  • Lloyd, John Henry
  • Mays, Willie
  • Morgan, Joe
  • Negro leagues
  • Paige, Satchel
  • Robinson, Frank
  • Robinson, Jackie
  • Stargell, Willie
  • Stone, Toni

Basketball

© John Swart/AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
  • Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem
  • Barkley, Charles
  • Baylor, Elgin
  • Bryant, Kobe
  • Chamberlain, Wilt
  • Cooper, Cynthia
  • Duncan, Tim
  • Durant, Kevin
  • Erving, Julius
  • Frazier, Walt
  • James, LeBron
  • Johnson, Magic
  • Jordan, Michael
  • Lloyd, Earl
  • Malone, Karl
  • Miller, Cheryl
  • O'Neal, Shaquille
  • Parker, Candace
  • Robertson, Oscar
  • Rodman, Dennis
  • Russell, Bill
  • Swoopes, Sheryl
  • Thomas, Isiah

Boxing

Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
  • Ali, Muhammad
  • Armstrong, Henry
  • Foreman, George
  • Frazier, Joe
  • Hagler, Marvin
  • Holmes, Larry
  • Holyfield, Evander
  • Johnson, Jack
  • Leonard, Sugar Ray
  • Liston, Sonny
  • Louis, Joe
  • Mayweather, Floyd
  • Robinson, Sugar Ray
  • Spinks, Leon
  • Spinks, Michael
  • Tyson, Mike

Football (American Gridiron)

© Jerry Coli/Dreamstime.com
  • Brown, Jim
  • Campbell, Earl
  • Dickerson, Eric
  • Dorsett, Tony
  • Kaepernick, Colin
  • Moss, Randy
  • Motley, Marion
  • Page, Alan
  • Parker, Jim
  • Payton, Walter
  • Pollard, Fritz
  • Rice, Jerry
  • Robinson, Eddie
  • Sanders, Barry
  • Sanders, Deion
  • Sayers, Gale
  • Simpson, O.J.
  • Smith, Emmitt
  • Tomlinson, LaDainian
  • White, Reggie

Golf

  • Peete, Calvin
  • Woods, Tiger

Gymnastics

  • Biles, Simone
  • Douglas, Gabby

Speed Skating

  • Davis, Shani

Tennis

© Zairbek Mansurov/Dreamstime.com
  • Ashe, Arthur
  • Gibson, Althea
  • Williams, Serena
  • Williams, Venus

Track and Field

Colorsport/REX/Shutterstock.com
  • Ashford, Evelyn
  • Beamon, Bob
  • Coachman, Alice
  • Devers, Gail
  • Felix, Allyson
  • Griffith Joyner, Florence
  • Johnson, Michael
  • Johnson, Rafer
  • Joyner-Kersee, Jackie
  • Lewis, Carl
  • Metcalfe, Ralph
  • Moses, Edwin
  • Owens, Jesse
  • Rudolph, Wilma
  • Smith, Tommie

Visual Arts

Archival footage supplied by the Internet Moving Images Archive (at archive.org) in association with Prelinger Archives

Robert Sorbo©AP/Shutterstock.com

Kathy Willens—AP/Shutterstock.com

© Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images
  • Bearden, Romare
  • Biggers, John T.
  • Catlett, Elizabeth
  • Cortor, Eldzier
  • Douglas, Aaron
  • Edmondson, William
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Hayden, Palmer C.
  • Johnson, Malvin Gray
  • Jones, Lois Mailou
  • Lawrence, Jacob
  • Lee-Smith, Hughie
  • Lewis, Edmonia
  • Lewis, Norman
  • Lowe, Ann
  • Marshall, Kerry James
  • Mayhew, Richard
  • Motley, Archibald J., Jr.
  • Nelson, Kadir
  • Parks, Gordon
  • Pinkney, Jerry
  • Ringgold, Faith
  • Savage, Augusta
  • Simms, Carroll H.
  • Tanner, Henry Ossawa
  • Walker, Kara
  • Washington, James W., Jr.
  • Woodruff, Hale Aspacio

Primary Source Documents

Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

Eddie Adams/AP Images
  • Virginia Slave Laws (1660–69)
  • Benjamin Banneker: Reflections of a Free Black Man (1792)
  • On Educating African American Women (1827)
  • William Lloyd Garrison: The Dangers of Slavery (1829)
  • Nat Turner: Confession (1831)
  • Frederick Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1845)
  • William Wells Brown: Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1847)
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom Defies Simon Legree (1852)
  • Sojourner Truth: What Time of Night It Is (1853)
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford: opinion written by Roger B. Taney (1857)
  • Emancipation Proclamation (primary source, 1863)
  • Frederick Douglass: The Color Line in America (1883)
  • John E. Bruce: African American Plea for Organized Resistance to White Men (1889)
  • Booker T. Washington: The Road to African American Progress (1895)
  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett: The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895)
  • Plessy v. Ferguson: opinions written by Henry B. Brown and John Marshall Harlan (1896)
  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Lynching and the Excuse for It (1901)
  • W.E.B. Du Bois: What African Americans Want (1903)
  • Langston Hughes: The Negro Artist and the Cultural Mountain (1926)
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: decision written by Earl Warren (1954)
  • Malcolm X: Advice to the Youth of Mississippi (1964)
  • Stokely Carmichael: Black Power (1966)
  • Shelby Steele and John E. Jacob: The State of Black America (1988)
  • Jesse Jackson: Speech to the Democratic National Convention (1992)
  • Henry Louis Gates: The Trial of O.J. Simpson (1995)
  • Barack Obama: Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (2004)
  • Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union: Race in America (2008)
  • Barack Obama: Victory Speech (2008)
  • Barack Obama: Inaugural Address (2009)

Alphabetical List

Links to all the featured articles and primary source documents are listed below in alphabetical order: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

A

AP Images
  • Aaron, Hank
  • Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem
  • Abernathy, Ralph David
  • abolitionist movement
  • affirmative action
  • African American History Month
  • African Americans
  • Ailey, Alvin, Jr.
  • Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University
  • Alabama State University
  • Alcorn State University
  • Aldridge, Ira Frederick
  • Alexander, Kwame
  • Ali, Mahershala
  • Ali, Muhammad
  • Allen, Richard
  • American Civil War
  • Amistad
  • Anderson, Marian
  • Angelou, Maya
  • Armstrong, Henry
  • Armstrong, Louis
  • Art Ensemble of Chicago
  • Ashe, Arthur
  • Ashford, Evelyn
  • Atlantic slave trade
  • Attucks, Crispus
  • Ayler, Albert

B

  • Bailey, Pearl
  • Baker, Anita
  • Baker, Augusta
  • Baker, Ella
  • Baker, Josephine
  • Baker, Lavern
  • Bakke decision
  • Baldwin, James
  • Ballard, Hank
  • Banks, Ernie
  • Banks, Tyra
  • Banneker, Benjamin
  • Banneker, Benjamin: Reflections of a Free Black Man (primary source, 1792)
  • Baraka, Amiri
  • Barkley, Charles
  • Barnett, Marguerite Ross
  • Barrett, Janie Porter
  • Barry, Marion
  • Basie, Count
  • Bass, Charlotta Spears
  • Bates, Daisy
  • Battle, Kathleen
  • Baylor, Elgin
  • Beamon, Bob
  • Bearden, Romare
  • Belafonte, Harry
  • Bell, Cool Papa
  • Benjamin, Regina
  • Berry, Chuck
  • Berry, Halle
  • Berry, Mary Frances
  • Bethune, Mary McLeod
  • Beyoncé
  • Biggers, John T.
  • Biles, Simone
  • Black Americans, or African Americans
  • Black codes
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Black Panther
  • Black power
  • Black Wall Street
  • Blake, Eubie
  • Blakey, Art
  • Blanton, Jimmy
  • Blige, Mary J.
  • Bluford, Guion S., Jr.
  • Bond, Julian
  • Bonds, Barry
  • Bontemps, Arna
  • Boseman, Chadwick
  • Boykin, Otis
  • Bradley, Ed
  • Bradley, Tom
  • Bridges, Ruby
  • Brock, Lou
  • Brooke, Edward
  • Brooks, Gwendolyn
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: decision written by Earl Warren (primary source, 1954)
  • Brown, Clifford
  • Brown, Henry "Box"
  • Brown, James
  • Brown, Jim
  • Brown, Ray
  • Brown, Ron
  • Brown, Ruth
  • Brown, William Wells
  • Brown, William, Wells: Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (primary source, 1847)
  • Bruce, John E.: African American Plea for Organized Resistance to White Men (primary source, 1889)
  • Bryant, Kobe
  • buffalo soldier
  • Bunche, Ralph Johnson
  • Burke, Tarana
  • Burleigh, Harry Thacker
  • Butler, Octavia
  • Butler, Selena Sloan
  • Byas, Don

C

Bill Hudson/AP Images
  • Calloway, Cab
  • Campanella, Roy
  • Campbell, Earl
  • Carew, Rod
  • Carey, Mariah
  • Carmichael, Stokely: Black Power (primary source, 1966)
  • Carney, William H.
  • Carruthers, George R.
  • Carson, Ben
  • Carter, Benny
  • Carver, George Washington
  • Casor, John
  • Catlett, Elizabeth
  • Chamberlain, Wilt
  • Chance the Rapper
  • Charles, Ray
  • Chesnutt, Charles W.
  • Cheswell, Wentworth
  • Chicago Defender
  • Chicago State University
  • Chisholm, Shirley
  • Christian, Charlie
  • Civil Rights Act
  • civil rights movement
  • Clark Atlanta University
  • Clayton, Buck
  • Cleaver, Eldridge
  • Coachman, Alice
  • Cole, Johnnetta
  • Cole, Nat King
  • Cole, Natalie
  • Coleman, Ornette
  • Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel
  • Colfax Massacre
  • Collier, Bryan
  • Collins, Marva
  • Coltrane, John
  • Common
  • Compromise of 1850
  • Conrad, Barbara Smith
  • Constitutional Convention
  • Cooke, Sam
  • Cooper, Cynthia
  • Copeland, Misty
  • Cornelius, Don
  • Cortor, Eldzier
  • Cosby, Bill
  • Craft, Jerry
  • Crummell, Alexander
  • Crumpler, Rebecca Lee
  • Cullen, Countee
  • Curtis, Christopher Paul

D

© Everett Collection/age fotostock
  • Dameron, Tadd
  • Dandridge, Dorothy
  • Dandridge, Ray
  • Davis, Angela
  • Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Jr.
  • Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Sr.
  • Davis, Miles
  • Davis, Ossie
  • Davis, Sammy, Jr.
  • Davis, Shani
  • Davis, Viola
  • De La Soul
  • Dee, Ruby
  • Delany, Martin R.
  • Delaware State University
  • Dellums, Ron
  • Detroit Race Riot of 1943
  • Detroit Riot of 1967
  • Devers, Gail
  • Dickerson, Eric
  • Diddley, Bo
  • Diddy
  • Dinkins, David
  • District of Columbia, University of the
  • Dixon, Willie
  • Doby, Larry
  • Dodds, Johnny
  • Domino, Fats
  • Dorsett, Tony
  • Dorsey, Thomas A.
  • Douglas, Aaron
  • Douglas, Gabby
  • Douglass, Frederick
  • Douglass, Frederick: The Color Line in America (primary source, 1883)
  • Douglass, Frederick: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (primary source, 1845)
  • Dove, Rita
  • Dr. Dre
  • Dred Scott decision
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford: opinion written by Roger B. Taney (primary source, 1857)
  • Drew, Charles Richard
  • Du Bois, W.E.B.
  • Du Bois, W.E.B.: What African Americans Want (primary source, 1903)
  • Du Sable, Jean-Baptist-Point
  • DuSable Museum of African American History
  • Dunbar, Paul Laurence
  • Duncan, Tim
  • Dunham, Katherine
  • Durant, Kevin
  • DuVernay, Ava

E

U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
  • Eckstine, Billy
  • Edelman, Marian Wright
  • Edmondson, William
  • Edmund Pettus Bridge
  • Elders, Joycelyn
  • Eldridge, Roy
  • Ellington, Duke
  • Elliott, Missy
  • Ellison, Ralph
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • Emancipation Proclamation (primary source, 1863)
  • Erving, Julius
  • Evers, Medgar

F

AP/Shutterstock.com
  • Farmer, James
  • Felix, Allyson
  • Fifteenth Amendment
  • Fishburne, Laurence
  • Fisk University
  • Fitzgerald, Ella
  • Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
  • Foreman, George
  • Foster, Rube
  • Fourteenth Amendment
  • Four Tops, the
  • Foxx, Jamie
  • Franklin, Aretha
  • Franklin, John Hope
  • Frazier, E. Franklin
  • Frazier, Joe
  • Frazier, Walt
  • Freedom Rides
  • Freeman, Harry
  • Freeman, Morgan
  • Fugitive Slave Acts
  • Fuller, Charles

G

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  • Gabriel
  • Gaines, Ernest J.
  • Garner, Erroll
  • Garrison, William Lloyd: The Dangers of Slavery (primary source, 1829)
  • Garvey, Marcus
  • Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.: The Trial of O.J. Simpson (primary source, 1995)
  • Gaye, Marvin
  • Gibson, Althea
  • Gibson, Bob
  • Gibson, Josh
  • Gillespie, Dizzy
  • Giovanni, Nikki
  • Glover, Danny
  • Glover, Donald
  • Glover, Savion
  • Goldberg, Whoopi
  • Gordon, Dexter
  • Gordy, Berry, Jr.
  • Gorman, Amanda
  • Gossett, Louis, Jr.
  • Grambling State University
  • Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
  • Great Migration
  • Green, Al
  • Green Book, the
  • Greensboro sit-in
  • Gregory, Dick
  • Griffey, Ken, Jr.
  • Griffin, Johnny
  • Griffith Joyner, Florence
  • Guy, Buddy

H

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZC4-7503)
  • Hagler, Marvin
  • Haley, Alex
  • Hall, Arsenio
  • Hamer, Fannie Lou
  • Hampton University
  • Hampton, Lionel
  • Hancock, Herbie
  • Handy, W.C.
  • Hansberry, Lorraine
  • Harlem Hellfighters
  • Harlem race riot of 1964
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Harper, Frances E.W.
  • Harpers Ferry
  • Harris, Kamala
  • Harris, Patricia Roberts
  • Hawkins, Coleman
  • Hayden, Carla D.
  • Hayden, Palmer C.
  • Hayes, Roland
  • Height, Dorothy
  • Hemings, Sally
  • Henderson, Fletcher
  • Henderson, Rickey
  • Hendrix, Jimi
  • Henson, Matthew Alexander
  • Hill, Anita
  • Hill, Lauryn
  • Hines, Earl
  • Hines, Gregory
  • historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
  • Hodges, Johnny
  • Holder, Eric
  • Holiday, Billie
  • Holland-Dozier-Holland
  • Holmes, Larry
  • Holyfield, Evander
  • Hooker, John Lee
  • Hooks, Benjamin L.
  • Hope, John
  • Horne, Lena
  • Houston, Whitney
  • Howard University
  • Howlin' Wolf
  • Hudson, Jennifer
  • Hughes, Langston
  • Hughes, Langston: The Negro Artist and the Cultural Mountain (primary source, 1926)
  • Hurston, Zora Neale

I

Lewton Cole/Alamy
  • Isley Brothers, the

J

Al Zanyk/Courtesy Wexner Center for the Arts
  • Jackson 5, the
  • Jackson, Janet
  • Jackson, Jesse
  • Jackson, Jesse: Speech to the Democratic National Convention (primary source, 1992)
  • Jackson, Lisa
  • Jackson, Mahalia
  • Jackson, Mary
  • Jackson, Maynard
  • Jackson, Michael
  • Jackson, Milt
  • Jackson, Reggie
  • Jackson, Samuel L.
  • Jacobs, Harriet A.
  • James, Etta
  • James, LeBron
  • JAY-Z
  • Jefferson, Blind Lemon
  • Jemison, Mae
  • Jemisin, N.K.
  • Jenkins, Fergie
  • Jennings, Thomas L.
  • Jim Crow law
  • John, Little Willie
  • Johns, Barbara
  • Johnson, Jack
  • Johnson, James P.
  • Johnson, James Weldon
  • Johnson, John H.
  • Johnson, Katherine
  • Johnson, Magic
  • Johnson, Malvin Gray
  • Johnson, Marsha P.
  • Johnson, Michael
  • Johnson, Rafer
  • Johnson, Robert
  • Johnson, Tommy
  • Jones, Bill T.
  • Jones, Frederick McKinley
  • Jones, James Earl
  • Jones, Jo
  • Jones, Lois Mailou
  • Jones, Matilda Sissieretta
  • Jones, Quincy
  • Joplin, Scott
  • Jordan, Barbara C.
  • Jordan, June
  • Jordan, Louis
  • Jordan, Michael
  • Jordan, Vernon
  • Joyner-Kersee, Jackie
  • Juneteenth

K

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (cph 3c20210)
  • Kaepernick, Colin
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Keckley, Elizabeth
  • Kendi, Ibram X.
  • Keys, Alicia
  • Kincaid, Jamaica
  • King, Albert
  • King, B.B.
  • King, Coretta Scott
  • King, Martin Luther, Jr.
  • Kitt, Eartha
  • Knight, Gladys, and the Pips
  • Kool and the Gang
  • Ku Klux Klan
  • Kwanzaa

L

Live Nation/PRNewsFoto/AP Images
  • Lacks, Henrietta
  • Lafayette, James
  • Lamar, Kendrick
  • Langston University
  • Latimer, Lewis
  • Lawrence, Jacob
  • Lawrence, Martin
  • Lawson, James
  • Leadbelly
  • Lee, Spike
  • Lee-Smith, Hughie
  • Legend, John
  • Leonard, Buck
  • Leonard, Sugar Ray
  • Lewis, Carl
  • Lewis, Edmonia
  • Lewis, John (jazz musician)
  • Lewis, John (civil rights leader and politician)
  • Lewis, Meade
  • Lewis, Norman
  • Lightfoot, Lori
  • Lil Wayne
  • Lincoln University
  • Liston, Sonny
  • Little Richard
  • Little Rock Nine
  • Little Walter
  • LL Cool J
  • Lloyd, Earl
  • Lloyd, John Henry
  • Locke, Alain
  • Logan, Rayford W.
  • Los Angeles Riots of 1992
  • Louis, Joe
  • Loving v. Virginia
  • Lowe, Ann
  • Ludacris
  • lynching
  • Lynch, Loretta

M

National Archives, Washington, D.C. (2803441)
  • Mac, Bernie
  • Malcolm X
  • Malcolm X: Advice to the Youth of Mississippi (primary source, 1964)
  • Malone, Karl
  • March on Washington
  • Marsalis, Wynton
  • Marshall, Kerry James
  • Marshall, Thurgood
  • Martha and the Vandellas
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
  • Marvelettes, the
  • Matzeliger, Jan Ernst
  • Mayhew, Richard
  • Mays, Willie
  • Mayweather, Floyd
  • McCoy, Elijah
  • McDaniel, Hattie
  • McDonald, Audra
  • McFerrin, Bobby
  • McKay, Claude
  • McKissack, Patricia
  • McMillan, Terry
  • Menard, John Willis
  • Menken, Adah Isaacs
  • Meredith, James
  • Metcalfe, Ralph
  • Mfume, Kweisi
  • Middle Passage
  • Miller, Cheryl
  • Minaj, Nicki
  • Mingus, Charles
  • Missouri Compromise
  • Mitchell, Arthur
  • Mo'Nique
  • Modern Jazz Quartet
  • Monk, Thelonious
  • Montague, Raye
  • Montgomery, Wes
  • Montgomery bus boycott
  • Morehouse College
  • Morgan, Garrett
  • Morgan State University
  • Morgan, Joe
  • Morrison, Toni
  • Morton, Jelly Roll
  • Moseley Braun, Carol
  • Moses, Edwin
  • Moss, Randy
  • Motley, Archibald J., Jr.
  • Motley, Marion
  • Motley, Willard
  • Motown
  • Murphy, Eddie
  • Murray, Pauli
  • Myers, Walter Dean

N

Jim Lo Scalzo—EPA/Alamy
  • Nas
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
  • National Urban League
  • Navarro, Fats
  • Naylor, Gloria
  • Negro leagues
  • Nelson, Kadir
  • New York slave rebellion of 1712
  • New York slave rebellion of 1741
  • Niagara Movement
  • Nicholas Brothers
  • Noone, Jimmie
  • Norman, Jessye

O

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  • O'Neal, Frederick
  • O'Neal, Shaquille
  • Obama, Barack
  • Obama, Barack: A More Perfect Union (primary source, 2008)
  • Obama, Barack: Inaugural Address (primary source, 2009)
  • Obama, Barack: Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic Convention (primary source, 2004)
  • Obama, Barack: Victory Speech (primary source, 2008)
  • Obama, Michelle
  • Oberlin College
  • Odetta
  • Okorafor, Nnedi
  • Oliver, King
  • Opelousas Massacre
  • Orioles, the
  • Ory, Kid
  • OutKast
  • Owens, Jesse

P

Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock.com
  • Page, Alan
  • Page, Walter
  • Paige, Satchel
  • Parker, Candace
  • Parker, Charlie
  • Parker, Jim
  • Parks, Gordon
  • Parks, Rosa
  • Parliament-Funkadelic
  • Patterson, Frederick Douglass
  • Patton, Charley
  • Payton, Walter
  • Peete, Calvin
  • Pendergrass, Teddy
  • Petry, Ann
  • Pickett, Wilson
  • Pinkney, Jerry
  • Platters, the
  • Plessy v. Ferguson
  • Plessy v. Ferguson: opinions written by Henry B. Brown and John Marshall Harlan (primary source, 1896)
  • Pointer Sisters
  • Poitier, Sidney
  • police brutality in the United States
  • Pollard, Fritz
  • poll tax
  • Powell, Bud
  • Powell, Colin
  • Price, Leontyne
  • Price, Sammy
  • Prince
  • Pryor, Richard
  • Public Enemy

Q

PRNewsFoto/VH1/AP Images
  • Queen Latifah

R

NARA
  • racism
  • Rainey, Ma
  • Rashad, Phylicia
  • Reconstruction
  • Red Summer
  • Redding, Otis
  • Reed, Ishmael
  • Reeves, Bass
  • reparations
  • restorative justice
  • Revels, Hiram R.
  • Reynolds, Jason
  • Rhimes, Shonda
  • Rice, Condoleezza
  • Rice, Jerry
  • Ringgold, Faith
  • Roach, Max
  • Robertson, Oscar
  • Robeson, Paul
  • Robinson, Bill
  • Robinson, Eddie
  • Robinson, Frank
  • Robinson, Jackie
  • Robinson, John C.
  • Robinson, Smokey, and the Miracles
  • Robinson, Sugar Ray
  • Rock, Chris
  • Rodman, Dennis
  • Rollins, Sonny
  • Rosewood riot of 1923
  • Ross, Diana
  • Rowan, Carl
  • Rudolph, Wilma
  • Ruffin, Josephine
  • Run-D.M.C.
  • RuPaul
  • Russell, Bill
  • Rustin, Bayard

S

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  • Sanders, Barry
  • Sanders, Deion
  • Satcher, David
  • Savage, Augusta
  • Savage, Gus
  • Sayers, Gale
  • Scottsboro Case
  • segregation
  • Selma March
  • Seneca Village
  • Shadd, Mary Ann
  • Shakur, Tupac
  • Shepp, Archie
  • Shirelles, the
  • Shorter, Wayne
  • Silver, Horace
  • Simms, Carroll H.
  • Simpson, O.J.
  • slave codes
  • slave rebellions
  • slavery and serfdom
  • Smith, Bessie
  • Smith, Emmitt
  • Smith, Tommie
  • Smith, Tracy K.
  • Smith, Will
  • Snipes, Wesley
  • Snoop Dogg
  • Soul Train
  • South Carolina State University
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  • Southern University
  • Spelman College
  • Spinks, Leon
  • Spinks, Michael
  • Springfield Race Riot
  • Stargell, Willie
  • Steele, Shelby, and Jacob, John E.: The State of Black America (primary source, 1988)
  • Stewart, Maria
  • Still, William Grant
  • Stitt, Sonny
  • Stokes, Carl
  • Stone, Toni
  • Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom Defies Simon Legree (primary source, 1852)
  • Summer, Donna
  • Supremes, the
  • Swoopes, Sheryl

T

MPI—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
  • Tanner, Henry Ossawa
  • Tatum, Art
  • Taylor, Cecil
  • Taylor, Mildred
  • Temptations, the
  • Tennessee State University
  • Texas Southern University
  • Tharpe, Sister Rosetta
  • Thirteenth Amendment
  • Thomas, Angie
  • Thomas, Clarence
  • Thomas, Isiah
  • Thompson, Lucky
  • Thornton, Big Mama
  • Till, Emmett
  • Timbaland
  • Tolson, Melvin
  • Tomlinson, LaDainian
  • Toomer, Jean
  • Truth, Sojourner
  • Truth, Sojourner: What Time of Night It Is (primary source, 1853)
  • Tubman, Harriet
  • Tulsa race massacre of 1921
  • Turner, Charles Henry
  • Turner, Nat
  • Turner, Nat: Confession (primary source, 1831)
  • Turner, Tina
  • Tuskegee Airmen
  • Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
  • Tuskegee syphilis study
  • Tuskegee University
  • Tyson, Mike
  • Tyson, Neil deGrasse

U

Gladstone Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-10940)
  • Underground Railroad
  • Usher

V

Bob Nichols/U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • Vandross, Luther
  • Vaughan, Dorothy
  • Vaughan, Sarah
  • Verrett, Shirley
  • Vesey, Denmark
  • Virginia Slave Laws (primary source, 1660–69)
  • Virginia State University
  • voter ID law
  • Voting Rights Act

W

PRNewsFoto/Oxmoor House/AP Images
  • Walker, Alice
  • Walker, Kara
  • Walker, Madam C.J.
  • Walker, Maggie Lena Draper
  • Walker, T-Bone
  • Waller, Fats
  • Warfield, William Caesar
  • Warnock, Raphael
  • Warwick, Dionne
  • Washington, Booker T
  • Washington, Booker T.: The Road to African American Progress (primary source, 1895)
  • Washington, Denzel
  • Washington, Dinah
  • Washington, Harold
  • Washington, James W., Jr.
  • Waters, Ethel
  • Waters, Muddy
  • Watson, Renée
  • Watts Riots of 1965
  • Weaver, Robert C.
  • Webb, Chick
  • Webster, Ben
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell: Lynching and the Excuse for It (primary source, 1901)
  • Wells-Barnett, Ida B.: The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (primary source, 1895)
  • West, Cornel
  • West, Gladys
  • West, Kanye
  • Wheatley, Phillis
  • White, Reggie
  • White, Walter
  • Whitehead, Colson
  • Wilder, Douglas
  • Wilkins, Roy
  • Williams, Bert
  • Williams, Cootie
  • Williams, Daniel Hale
  • Williams, Mary Lou
  • Williams, Saul
  • Williams, Serena
  • Williams, Venus
  • Wilmot Proviso
  • Wilson, August
  • Wilson, Jackie
  • Winfrey, Oprah
  • Women: On Educating African American Women (primary source, 1827)
  • Wonder, Stevie
  • Woodruff, Hale Aspacio
  • Woods, Granville T.
  • Woods, Tiger
  • Woodson, Carter G.
  • Woodson, Jacqueline
  • Wright, Richard

X, Y, Z

U.S. News and World Report Magazine Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. LC-DIG-ppmsc-01275)
  • Yerby, Frank
  • York
  • Young, Andrew
  • Young, Coleman
  • Young, Lester
  • Young, Whitney M., Jr.