Black History Now
October 1859: John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
On October 16, 1859, John Brown and 21 men, five of them Black, attacked the federal armory at Harpers Ferry to spark a war on slavery.
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The Past is Present
History written for readers, not for footnotes.
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Black History Now
October 1995: The Million Man March
On October 16, 1995, hundreds of thousands of Black men gathered on the National Mall for the Million Man March, a day of atonement, unity and responsibility.
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Black History Now
Howard Rollins Jr.: From Baltimore to Virgil Tibbs
Born on this day in 1950, Howard Rollins Jr. carried Black dignity onto stage, film and prime-time television, from Ragtime to In the Heat of the Night.
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Global
The Past Is Present: October 17, 1961, and the Marches of 2026
Sixty-five years after the Paris police massacre of Algerian marchers, France's unfinished reckoning keeps 1961 alive in the students' and protesters' marches of 2026.
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Black History Now
October 1966: The Founding of the Black Panther Party
In Oakland in October 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Who they were, what they built and why it still matters.
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Black History Now
Morgan State University Homecoming: A Celebration in Three Acts
Photos from Morgan State University's 2026 homecoming parade, where the band carried a tradition built over generations.
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Why this platform exists
Historianspeaks is a public history project devoted to making the Black past reachable — free of jargon, free of paywalls, and free of the flattened, one-note version of the story most of us were handed in school.
Through essays, conversation, and archival material, this site treats history as a working tool: something that explains the present and helps chart what comes next.
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Black History Now
Weekly blogs on Black history—past and present that shape our contemporary lives.
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Podcast
The Historianspeaks Podcast
Long-form conversations running from Reconstruction politics to popular culture. Latest episode: Juneteenth and a legacy of song.
Listen nowAcross the Centuries
A collage of the Black past, in color
From the marketplaces of West Africa through the age of sail, plantation colonies, Reconstruction classrooms, the Harlem street, and today’s block parties.
The African past
Kingdoms, scholars, and markets
15th century
Coastal trade and early contact
16th century
Arrival and resistance in the Americas
17th century
Arrival and resistance in a new world
18th century
Artisans and free communities
19th century
Freedom schools after emancipation
20th century
City life, music, and movement
21st century
Culture and community today
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