Black History Now
Opposition to Busing in Boston, 1974
Sept 12, 1974: Opposition to court-ordered school busing in Boston, MA, turned violent the 1st day of classes
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Black History Matters
The Past is Present
History written for readers, not for footnotes.
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Black History Now
Alain Locke, 1st Black Rhodes Scholar and Father of the Harlem Renaissance
Alain Locke (Sept 13, 1885 - Jun 9, 1954). 1st Black Rhodes Scholar after graduating from Harvard (1908) with a degree in philosophy
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Black History Now
Kim Hamilton (Sept 12, 1932 - Sept 16, 2013). Film/TV actress, director, writer, artist.
Kim Hamilton (Sept 12, 1932 - Sept 16, 2013). Film/TV actress, director, writer, artist. Her career spanned more than a half century, from the early 1950s to 2010.
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Black History Now
Christopher J. Perry, Businessman, politican and Civil Rights Activist
Christopher J. Perry (Sept 11, 1854 - May 20, 1921). Businessman, politician, civil rights activist, journalist, founder of ‘The Tribune
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Black History Now
LeRoy Wilton Homer Jr, 1st Officer of United Flight 93-
LeRoy Wilton Homer Jr joined the ancestors (Aug 27, 1965 - Sept 11, 2001). 1st Officer of United Flight 93 that crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA.
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Black History Now
Crispus Attucks Wright, Civil Rights Lawyer
Crispus Attucks (Cris) Wright (Sept 11, 1914 - Dec 9, 2001). Civil rights lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, based in Los Angeles, CA.
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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.
Blog
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.
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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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