HistorianSpeakshistorianspeaks.org
Black History Matters
History written for readers, not for footnotes.
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Black History Now
For LGBTQIA+ History Month, a look at the Black queer and trans organizers, writers and thinkers whose work sat at the center of the freedom struggle.
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Black History Now
After KKK imagery appeared in tournament materials, Howard’s club tennis players called for investigation, training, public apologies, and action beyond suspension.
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Global
A protest that began with Black high school students in the Paris suburbs spread across France on October 13, 2026. Their own flyers show how the movement saw itself.
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Black History Now
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Navi Pillay, the South African jurist who defended apartheid's opponents and helped make rape a prosecutable act of genocide.
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Black History Now
Oct 8, 1992: The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Saint Lucian poet and playwright Derek Walcott. He was the 2nd Caribbean writer to receive the honor after Saint-John Perse, who was born in Guadeloupe, received the award in 1960.
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Black History Now
October 7, 1963: James Forman and the SNCC helped organize what was known as “Freedom Day” with hundreds of Black Selma, AL, residents attempting to register to vote
Continue readingOur Purpose
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.
Blog
Weekly blogs on Black history—past and present that shape our contemporary lives.
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Podcast
Long-form conversations running from Reconstruction politics to popular culture. Latest episode: Juneteenth and a legacy of song.
Listen nowAcross the Centuries
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
Stay Current
One dispatch a week: a new essay, a podcast episode, and something from the archive worth a second look.