Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield HP celebrates Black History Month by bringing ‘barber shop experience’ to Jamaica, Queens

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield HP celebrates Black History Month by bringing ‘barber shop experience’ to Jamaica, Queens

Feb 27, 2024
Annual award honors legacy of pioneering dance educator

Annual award honors legacy of pioneering dance educator

Feb 22, 2024
Black History Month 2024 theme: African Americans and the Arts

Black History Month 2024 theme: African Americans and the Arts

Jan 26, 2024

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) released the following statement about the national theme for Black History Month 2024. ASALH is a learned society dedicated to the study and appreciation of African-American History. The association was founded by…

Joy-Ann Reid explores Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ love story and impact on civil rights

Joy-Ann Reid explores Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ love story and impact on civil rights

Feb 27, 2024
Augusta Savage and her work (53006)

American Masters Shorts airs ‘Searching for Augusta Savage’ in honor of Black History Month

Feb 22, 2024
The road to reparations

The road to reparations

‘40 acres and a mule’: The state of Black reparations today

‘40 acres and a mule’: The state of Black reparations today

In the future, when we have reparations…

In the future, when we have reparations…

2024 THEME: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE ARTS

Ellen Holly, accomplished, barrier-breaking actress

Ellen Holly, accomplished, barrier-breaking actress

New York Amsterdam News first to print the term ‘Hip-Hop’

New York Amsterdam News first to print the term ‘Hip-Hop’

Dr. Samella Lewis, a champion of Black art and artists

Dr. Samella Lewis, a champion of Black art and artists

Patrick Henry Reason (297892)

Patrick Henry Reason, noted engraver and lithographer

(220004)

Architect Vertner W. Tandy, a man of many firsts

Gordon Parks at the March on Washington, 1963 (106726)

Gordon Parks, exemplary of the Renaissance man

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

Frank Crosswaith (304501)

Frank Crosswaith, a prominent Socialist and labor activist

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

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

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

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

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

(136853)

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

Anne Spencer (160372)

Anne Spencer, often forgotten poet of the Harlem Renaissance

Dr. James McCune Smith (178593)

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

Willye B. White (220420)

Olympic great and nurse, Willye B. White

NYC BLACK HISTORY

Blacks in the FDNY (137226)

The history of Black firefighters in New York

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

Herbert and Sylvia Woods (208618)

Sylvia Woods, the queen of soul food

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

George Coleman Poage: The first Black Olympian

George Coleman Poage: The first Black Olympian

Toni Stone (129861)

Toni Stone, first female professional baseball player

Olympic great Jesse Owens

Olympic great Jesse Owens

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

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

Emmett Ashford (292597)

Emmett Ashford, the first Black umpire in the Major Leagues