Black History Month 2025
African Americans and Labor

African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.

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FEATURED ARTICLES

Celebrating the Black immigrants who shaped NYC’s history

Celebrating the Black immigrants who shaped NYC’s history

Black and Brown communities continue long history of mutual aid

Black and Brown communities continue long history of mutual aid

Memoir explores author’s eye-opening family history

Memoir explores author’s eye-opening family history

Sam Nujoma, unwavering African revolutionary, dead at 95

Sam Nujoma, unwavering African revolutionary, dead at 95

Nathan George, actor and director of prominence often neglected

Nathan George, actor and director of prominence often neglected

Yona Deshommes amplifies Black voices with Riverchild Media

Yona Deshommes amplifies Black voices with Riverchild Media

Africa Center’s new CEO Martin Kimani says ‘connection’ needed now more than ever

Africa Center’s new CEO Martin Kimani says ‘connection’ needed now more than ever

Award-winning artist finds inspiration, creative lifeline in NYC’s bead district

Award-winning artist finds inspiration, creative lifeline in NYC’s bead district

Schomburg Center to celebrate centennial with year-long programming

Schomburg Center to celebrate centennial with year-long programming

A more complete history of Harlem Renaissance being unearthed at Woodlawn Cemetery

A more complete history of Harlem Renaissance being unearthed at Woodlawn Cemetery

FEATURED VIDEO

Retired Air Force Major General and Tuskegee president says airmen history is ‘timeless’

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND LABOR

Ewart Guinier, progressive labor activist and educator

Ewart Guinier, progressive labor activist and educator

Addie Wyatt, a stalwart, visionary union leader

Addie Wyatt, a stalwart, visionary union leader

Ben Fletcher, an intrepid labor organizer and activist

Ben Fletcher, an intrepid labor organizer and activist

Dorothy Lee Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Worker’s Union

Dorothy Lee Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Worker’s Union

Frank Crosswaith (304501)

Frank Crosswaith, a prominent Socialist and labor activist

Dorothy Bolden (276597)

Dorothy Bolden, civil rights activist and visionary labor leader

A. Philip Randolph (198185)

A. Philip Randolph: Father of the Black labor movement

Dr. Charles Wesley (124044)

Dr. Charles H. Wesley: The eminent historian on Black labor

BLACK PIONEERS

William and Ellen Craft’s ingenious escape from slavery

William and Ellen Craft’s ingenious escape from slavery

Homer Plessy, a civil rights activist who battled Jim Crow laws

Homer Plessy, a civil rights activist who battled Jim Crow laws

Elise Johnson McDougald—educator, writer, and activist for women’s rights

Elise Johnson McDougald—educator, writer, and activist for women’s rights

Rev. Isaiah Dickerson (305589)

The Rev. Isaiah Dickerson, a relentless advocate for reparations

Anna Murray Douglass (303283)

Anna Murray Douglass, an abolitionist deserving wider recognition

LAW

Constance Baker Motlet (94532)

Constance Baker Motley: First Black woman federal judge

Butler Wilson, a leading attorney and civic activist

Butler Wilson, a leading attorney and civic activist

Conrad Lynn, a lawyer for the damned

Conrad Lynn, a lawyer for the damned

Macon Allen, Our nation’s first Black lawyer

Macon Allen, Our nation’s first Black lawyer

Judge Willams Hastie (296926)

Judge William Hastie, the first Black federal judge

EDUCATION

Edward Bouchet (304034)

Edward Bouchet, the first Black to earn a Ph.D. in America

Dr. Maceo C. Dailey (255246)

Dr. Maceo C. Dailey, eminent Black Studies teacher and historian

Dr. Benjamin F. Payton (222208)

Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, esteemed leader and educator

Alexander Twighlight (213347)

Alexander Twilight, the first African-American college graduate in US

For Teachers: A look at our historic Black colleges (39041)

A look at our historic Black colleges

OUR ROOTS

MEDIA

State of first African American woman to be admitted to White House press corps (298330)

Alice Dunnigan, first Black female reporter to cover the White House

Evelyn Cunningham (270441)

Evelyn Cunningham, the grande dame of Black journalism

Max Robinson (141368)

Trailblazing African-American newsman Max Robinson

Ethel L. Payne (92663)

Ethel L. Payne, ‘First Lady of the Black Press’

Thomas Fortune (50640)

T. Thomas Fortune, famed journalist and civil rights leader

MILITARY

Dr. Olivia Hooker (294297)

Dr. Olivia Hooker, first Black woman in the Coast Guard, eyewitness to Tulsa Massacre

Cheryl Wills (39408)

Sandy Wills, a courageous soldier during the Civil War

Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen, Jr. (ret.) the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general, died Aug. 25, 2015. Petersen served during the Korean War in 1953 and Vietnam in 1968. During his career, he flew more than 350 combat missions and more than 4,000 hours in various military aircraft. (159010)

The Marines’ first Black pilot, Frank E. Petersen Jr.

Carl E. Clark (239130)

World War II hero Carl E. Clark honored before his death

Wilfred DeFour (273783)

Wilfred DeFour, a valiant and vital Tuskegee Airman

POLITICS

Bill Lynch in January, 2007 (27742)

Bill Lynch, a political consultant nonpareil

Mayor David Dinkins (272552)

Remembering Mayor David Dinkins

Dr. Margret Just Butcher (283813)

Dr. Margaret Just Butcher, educator and political activist

Carl B. Stokes (158986)

Carl B. Stokes, Cleveland’s first Black mayor

(85894)

Barbara Jordan: An American hero

VIDEOS – NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM

YouTube video

The Powell Family Farmstead and the Importance of Place

YouTube video

MLK Address to the New York State Civil War Centennial Commission

YouTube video

The Fifty-Year Legacy Of The Attica Prison Uprising

YouTube video

Evidence Of Slavery And Freedom Buried Beneath The Floor

BUSINESS

The Duterte building at 838 Lombard Street in Philadelphia was both a funeral home and a stop on the Underground Railroad (292447)

Henrietta Duterte, abolitionist and first woman owner of a funeral home

H. Taylor Fitzhugh (142357)

H. Naylor Fitzhugh, the ‘dean of Black business’

Annie Turnbo Malone (256466)

Annie Turnbo Malone, trailblazing millionaire and beauty maven

Violet T. Lewis (240600)

Violet T. Lewis, educational trailblazer and founder of Lewis College of Business

James Forten (302473)

James Forten, early abolitionist and successful businessman

ENTERTAINMENT

August Wilson (30347)

A playwright of the ages, August Wilson

Billy Graham, Marvel Comics’ first Black artist (258468)

Billy Graham, Marvel Comics’ first Black artist

Hattie McDaniel (233577)

Film immortal, Hattie McDaniel

Josephine Baker (117838)

Josephine Baker, the ‘Bronze Venus’

Valaida Snow, ‘The Queen of the Trumpet’

Valaida Snow, ‘The Queen of the Trumpet’

HEALTH

Dr. Charles H. Wright (78400)

Resourceful, gifted Dr. Charles H. Wright

Ruth Ella Moore (292032)

Dr. Ruth Ella Moore, the first Black female natural scientist

Dr. James McCune Smith (178593)

Dr. James McCune Smith, America’s first Black physician

Anne Spencer (160372)

Anne Spencer, often forgotten poet of the Harlem Renaissance

(136853)

Mary Eliza Mahoney, the nation’s first Black professional nurse

WHAT IT TAKES PODCAST

Maya Angelou (75188)

WHAT IT TAKES: Maya Angelou

Sidney Poitier (257060)

WHAT IT TAKES: Sidney Poitier

Ernest J. Gaines (257061)

WHAT IT TAKES: Ernest Gaines

Morton Broffman, “Ethel Kennedy and Coretta Scott King, Mother’s Day Welfare March, Washington, D.C.,” 1968 (126877)

WHAT IT TAKES: Coretta Scott King

James Earl Jones (40086)

WHAT IT TAKES: James Earl Jones

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, founder of Girls Not Brides (76737)

WHAT IT TAKES: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

NYC BLACK HISTORY

Blacks in the FDNY (137226)

The history of Black firefighters in New York

Herbert and Sylvia Woods (208618)

Sylvia Woods, the queen of soul food

Lt. Samuel Battle and his 4-year-old granddaughter Yvonne at his swearing in as the first Black parole commissioner of New York City, Sept. 4, 1941 (135664)

Samuel J. Battle, New York City’s first Black man in blue

The village in the park (36584)

The village in the park

A historic walk through Harlem (37203)

A historic walk through Harlem

SCIENCE

Black innovators (63946)

Celebrating Black inventors

(242143)

James West, co-inventor of the modern day microphone

Henry Blair (255831)

Farmer and a pioneering inventor Henry Blair

Marie Van Brittan Brown (276928)

CCTV inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown

Sarah Boone (307195)

Sarah Boone, inventor of the ironing board and first Black woman to get a patent

SPORTS

Emmett Ashford (292597)

Emmett Ashford, the first Black umpire in the Major Leagues

Dr. Robert W. Johnson and his star pupil, Althea Gibson (243264)

Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, the ‘godfather’ of Black tennis

Olympic great Jesse Owens

Olympic great Jesse Owens

Toni Stone (129861)

Toni Stone, first female professional baseball player

George Coleman Poage: The first Black Olympian

George Coleman Poage: The first Black Olympian