One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed Slaves At the close of the Civil War, freed slaves in Charleston honored fallen Union soldiers. (History.com) Memorial Day was born out of necessity. After the American Civil War, a battered United States was faced with the task of burying and honoring the

How the U.S. Navy’s First Black Officers Helped Reshape the American Military Image: U.S. Navy bombers in flight over their carrier, circa 1944, the year the first African-American sailors were selected for the Navy's Officer Candidate School. (Getty Images) (Time.com) This year marks the 75th anniversary of the United States victory over Germany and

3 Africans in Mexico City Grave Tell Stories of Slavery’s Toll The men might have been among the earliest to be stolen from their homeland and brought to the Americas. Image: The skulls and modified teeth of three people taken from Africa and buried hundreds of years ago in a mass grave in Mexico

The Rediscovered African American Last Supper Sculpture Will Stay in DC Studio Acting Conservatory has decided to keep the mammoth frieze, which it found by accident when renovating its new home. (Washington.com) Last fall, a demolition crew working on the new home of Studio Acting Conservatory in Columbia Heights made a startling discovery behind

Al Edwards, former state rep behind bill that created Juneteenth, dies at 83 Photo: Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, left, talks to (then) Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, during a session Thursday, May 15, 2003, at the Capitol in Austin. (AP Photo/Kelly West) (Houston Chronicle) Al Edwards, the former Houston legislator who introduced the bill that

How the Harlem Renaissance Sparked a New African American Identity Photo: Singer and dancer Josephine Baker (1906-1975), a fixture of Harlem Renaissance nightclubs, on a tiger rug around 1925. (Hulton Archive/Getty images) (history.howstuffworks.com) From poetry and prose to music, painting, sculpture and more, the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance produced an unprecedented

Hoskins broke barriers in Texas League Right-hander continued integration of Minor League Baseball Photo: Dave Hoskins led the Texas League with 22 wins and ranked fifth with a 2.12 ERA for the Dallas Eagles in 1952. (Texas League) (MILB.com) April 15, 1947 might be baseball's moment to cherish, but the historical significance of that

The Heroines of America’s Black Press Image: A collage of the art commissioned for this article; from top left, by Johnalynn Holland, Andrea Pippins, Erin Robinson, Elise R. Peterson, Adriana Bellet, and Xia Gordon (The New York Review of Books) How many black women journalists from the nineteenth century can you name? For many,

Willis, Texas native The Black Businessman  Who Built an Empire Despite Jim Crow Oppression Using white colleagues as front men, Bernard Garrett bought real estate, made millions and uplifted fellow blacks in pursuit of the American dream. (History.com) During the 1950s and ‘60s, the civil rights movement dominated the political landscape. But for Bernard

How the Black Power Movement Influenced the Civil Rights Movement With a focus on racial pride and self-determination, leaders of the Black Power movement argued that civil rights activism did not go far enough. Image: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images (History.com) By 1966, the civil rights movement had been gaining momentum for more than a decade,