No Ceilings
Long before the Tuskegee Airmen, Bessie Coleman inspired a generation of pilots to take to the skies
Run It Back
Restoring the black history that's been erased
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Writing Without Fear
The early black abolitionist David Walker thought he might be killed for his words against slavery, but he wrote them anyway
The Man Who Built Black History Month
Carter G. Woodson chronicled the highs and lows of black life, and he gave others the tools to do the same
Resistance Isn’t Futile
What I learned researching a man who was arrested for owning a book
Freedom by Violent Means: Part II
The killing of a white slavecatcher by a group of armed black people prompted a vicious response from the federal government
Freedom by Violent Means: Part I
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 sparked a wave of violent resistance, leading to a killing in Christiana, Pennsylvania
Truthtelling in a Time of Lies
William Still, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, gave fugitive slaves the space to tell their own authentic stories
What I've Been Up To
Looking for a path forward through the past
The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall
Abolitionists built a monument to liberty and free speech steps from Indepdence Hall in Philadelphia. Then a mob burned it the ground.
The First Black Voters
Black men could vote in many U.S. states after the American Revolution, but they soon battled a wave of disenfranchisement laws as the nation turned its back on equality