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Sojourner Truth

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:37:02 +0000

Born into slavery in New York State in the 1790s, Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write. Yet she became known as a passionate ...

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Black History Month

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:16:54 +0000

As we commemorate Black History Month, it's an ideal time to pay tribute to the life and career of historian Carter G. Woodson, who is often cited as the creator ...

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The 13th Amendment

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:24:47 +0000

The Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln issued on January 1, 1863, was destined to be a temporary measure. It invoked the war powers of the presidency, and it declared ...

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Home of Josiah Henson In the News

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:48:04 +0000

The Washington Post's Civil War blog published an interesting item about the home of Josiah Henson, whose life is generally believed to have been an inspiration for the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin...

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Remembering Melvinia

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:43:34 +0000

Seeing the first lady take her seat in the visitor's gallery of the House of Representatives for President Obama's State of the Union address was a reminder of the history ...

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The Tuskegee Airmen

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:38:20 +0000

The new George Lucas action film "Red Tails" tells the story of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a celebrated group of African-American fighter pilots in World War II.

The very existence of the squadron was a milestone. The U.S. Army was still segregated during the war, and it took the intercession of the Roosevelt administration to authorize the training of black pilots. As they were trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, they became known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Under the command of Benjamin O. Davis, an Army Air Force officer who eventually was promoted to general, the pilots battled racism and countless obstacles when their first squadron began flying combat missions in 1943.

Eventually the top brass realized the value of the pilots, and more squadrons of Tuskegee Airmen were trained and began flying missions over Europe. The pilots compiled an impressive service record, winning many medals and distinguishing themselves as bomber escorts, bravely engaging in dogfights with German fighter pilots.

Illustration: Wartime poster depicting a Tuskegee Airman/Getty Images

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:19:44 +0000

As we pause to observe Martin Luther King Day, it's a good time to look back on his career.

Dr. King first came to prominence as a leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and his name became closely associated in the public mind with the Civil Rights Movement.

His "I have a dream" speech in August 1963 is often quoted, and it stands out as a classic American oration. And his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" is also considered a major essay of the Civil Rights Movement.

Dr. King's colleague in the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis, who is now a congressman from Georgia, remarked this morning on Twitter that today should be "a day on, not a day off," and urged Americans to get involved in a day of service in their communities. And Congressman Lewis also remembers his first meeting with Dr. King in a touching video at the Washington Post's tribute to the great leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

Photograph: Martin Luther King, Jr./Getty Images

Langston Hughes

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:51:41 +0000

The author Langston Hughes was one of the most influential black writers of the 20th century. Known primarily ...

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Slave Rebellions

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:58:51 +0000

Uprisings by slaves didn't happen often. But a few notable incidents made a constant fear of slave rebellions resonate deeply in the American South.

The Stono Rebellion, in 1739, was the largest slave revolt in colonial America. Slaves along the Stono River in South Carolina, some of whom had served as soldiers in Africa before being sold into slavery, planned their actions carefully.

After seizing weapons, the slaves, in military formation and flying flags, tried to march south to Florida. The local militia located and attacked them, killing many.

Nearly a century later, Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831 terrified Virginians. Turner, a slave who spoke of having religious visions, led a band of about 50 men, seizing weapons and murdering whites.

A local militia attacked Turner and his men, and Turner was eventually hunted down. After a trial he was hanged.

When the fanatical abolitionist John Brown seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859, it sent a shock wave through southern society as the fear of slave rebellions had always been so pervasive.

Indeed, laws which had been passed to prevent slave rebellions, and the violence unleashed to put them down, demonstrated that slavery was not the benign and human institution its supporters often claimed.

Illustration: Capture of Nat Turner/Getty Images

The Civil Rights Movement In the 1950s

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:22:59 +0000

The Civil Rights Movement can often seem synonymous with the 1960s, especially as many iconic photographs from that decade became enduring symbols. Yet the previous decade was also a fascinating time.

While the Civil Rights Movement may not have been at center of American life in the 1950s, great strides were being made. The cause of a Kansas third-grader forced to attended a segregated school made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the landmark desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Education.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in December 1955, and her dedication led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In Little Rock, Arkansas, federal troops were dispatched in 1957 to enforce the desegregation of Little Rock Central High.

A timeline of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s illustrates the profound changes that were occurring as the stage was being set for the 1960s.

Photograph: Attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, at a 1955 press conference discussing Civil Rights cases/Getty Images