HistorianSpeakshistorianspeaks.org
Black History Matters
History written for readers, not for footnotes.
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Education
Across France, high school students — many of them Black and North African — have blockaded their schools to protest overcrowded classrooms, budget cuts, and racist violence. This is their story.
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Black History Now
Oct 5, 1943: The Homestead Grays won their 1st Negro World Series championship by defeating the Birmingham Black Barons.
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Black History Now
Johnny Mathis (Sept 30, 1935). Singer who started his career with singles of standard music. He is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century
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Black History Now
As high schoolers across France blockaded their schools over crumbling buildings and crowded classrooms, the first Black mayor of Saint-Denis placed himself between the students and the riot police.
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Black History Now
Sept 30, 1919: The ‘Elaine Massacre’ occurs. There was a meeting of Black sharecroppers near Elaine, Arkansas.
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Black History Now
Fannie Lou Hamer (Oct 6, 1917 - Mar 14, 1977). Voting/women's rights activist, community organizer, civil rights movement leader.
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.