Paul Laurence Dunbar
Explore the life and triumphs of Paul Laurence Dunbar, an influential African American poet and writer who overcame racial barriers and left a lasting impact on American literature through his powerful works, despite battling racism and personal hardships.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
Mary Ellen Pleasant was a self-made millionaire and leading abolitionist who rose to fame and suffered infamy in San Francisco.
McKinley Thompson Jr
McKinley Thompson Jr broke the color barrier as the first black American to work for a major auto manufacturer when Ford Motor Company hired him in 1956.
Hot Springs and Blacks
During the Jim Crow segregation era, a coveted spa city named Hot Springs was home to black employees who served in white bathhouses and helped stoke the city's fame.
Captain Robert Smalls
Robert Smalls was born into slavery in 1839 but escaped with his family and a crew of other enslaved persons during the American Civil War. He eventually became a sea captain, a politician, businessman, and publisher.
Black on the RMS Titanic
Although various media have recounted the sinking of the Titanic over several decades, most accounts neglect to feature the only black family that sailed aboard her in second-class accommodations.
Paul Cuffee
Paul Cuffee spearheaded the first back-to-Africa movement in the U.S. at the turn of the nineteenth century and became the first free black American to meet with a sitting president at the White House.
Gold Fever
The discovery of gold in California brought white enslavers and the enslaved, immigrants from foreign nations, and many freeborn blacks from the Northeast who mined for the precious metal with varying degrees of success.
Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph, a track and field athlete, made history in 1960 by becoming the first American woman to compete in a single Olympics and win three gold medals.
Dorothy E. Brunson
Dorothy Brunson owned three radio stations and pioneered what came to be known as urban contemporary radio. She was also the first black woman to own and operate a television station.