James Baldwin’s Challenge to America: Not Your Negro and Not Willing to Settle
The esteemed 20th-century writer demanded that White society accept its culpability in the betrayal of Black people
Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee: ‘Do While You Can’
Charles McGee never thought much of flying until he started training at Tuskegee. When he finally left the U.S. Air Force, he had 30 years and three wars behind him.
After Decades-Long Delay, One of the First Black Special Forces Officers May Be Awarded Medal of Honor
The Army “somehow lost the nomination.” Twice.
“Wake, Nicodemus”: A Ballad by Abolitionist Henry Clay Work Inspired by a Black Settlement
Work's ballad relates the tale of a man named Nicodemus, who was brought to America on a slave ship and later purchased his freedom.
Honoring Anna Mae Robertson and the ‘Six Triple Eight,’ WWII’s First and Only All-Black Female Battalion
With the motto, 'no mail, low morale,' the battalion tackled a two-year backlog of mail in 1945
Active Participants: African Americans and the Reconstruction of Democracy in America
A landmark study gave African Americans credit for being important actors in their freedom quest
American History Review: New Orleans’ Culture a Gumbo Built on Jazz and Freedom
The hidden history of Economy Hall recalls a brotherhood of Black leaders who built a vibrant community.
Excerpt from ‘A Shot in the Moonlight’ by Ben Montgomery
"A Shot in the Moonlight" by Ben Montgomery is the true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, who in 1899 joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice in the Jim Crow South.
Virginian Sacrificed His Life to Save Friends in Vietnam
Facing a Viet Cong ambush, Ruppert Leon Sargent threw himself on enemy grenades to save the lives of his friends nearby
Museum Purchases Artifact that Rewrites British Army’s Racial History
A World War I plaque indicates that Euan Lucie-Smith was the first multiracial officer commissioned in the British Army
The Mystery of the Missing European Colonies
The stories of settlements that briefly claimed toeholds in North America before vanishing
The Fastest Man on Two Wheels was Nearly Forgotten Thanks to Jim Crow
"Major" Taylor was the best bicycle rider of his time, but his career was badly undermined by Jim Crow
Italy’s African Eagle
East African orphan Domenico Mondelli won the Italian Armed Forces Silver Medal for Military Valor in World War I
Songs of 1865: How the Various Parties to the Civil War Saw the Struggle’s End
Historian S.C. (Sam) Gwynne's "Hymns of the Republic" looks at the Civil War's final year from multiple perspectives.
An Economist Repudiates Slavery With Dollars and Sense Arguments
John Elliott Cairnes' devastating critique of Southern society sinks the Confederacy's campaign to bond with Britain
