Photo credits: National Air and Space Museum via WikiCommons Bessie Coleman (pictured), born Jan. 26, 1892, was a renowned aviator who was the first African-American woman to become a pilot, as well as the first to hold an international pilot’s license.  When she turned 18, Coleman took her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored […]

Photo credits: The Gilder Lehrman Collection African Americans have served in every conflict in United States history, beginning with the American Revolution. However, it was not until the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation’s passage that free African American men were officially sanctioned to join the US Army. On January 26, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts […]

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 493 was Seattle’s mostly-black musicians union from 1918-1956. Excluded from the powerful all-white musicians union (AFM local 76), non-white musicians founded their separate local in 1918 (originally Local 458, becoming Local 493 in 1924). The new local contested the segregated white union’s attempts to prevent black workers from […]

Nina Simone is known for her hauntingly beautiful alto voice. She was  a jazz, blues, classical, folk, R&B, and gospel songstress, as well as a civil rights activist.   The meaning behind Simone’s song, “Blackbird” speaks to the struggles and pain of black women, as black birds. She expresses the pain of feeling unloved and […]

In a video posted on The Black History School, we learn more about A Nobel Peace Prize winner and humanitarian, Jimmy Carter is well known for his real efforts promoting civil rights. His presidency had the highest amount of Blacks in his administration. His actions made him the “progressive: new south” poster child in Time’s […]

Photo credits: Turtle Learning/BlogSpot Constance Baker-Motley (pictured) was an American lawyer, jurist, and an effective legal advocate in the Civil Rights Movement. She was also the first African American woman to become a federal judge. Motley was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut. Her father was a chef for Skull and Bones, an exclusive social club at Yale College in New […]

Alex Manly was a black newspaper editor and Republican party leader in Wilmington. He published the Wilmington Daily Record, which described itself as “the only negro daily in the world.” The Record covered local as well as national news and championed the interests of the black community. Manly is usually remembered for an editorial he […]

Annie Wealthy Holland, educator, was born in Isle of Wight County, Va., on a plot of land contiguous to the Wealthy plantation, where her grandmother had been a slave. Holland was named after Annie Wealthy, mistress of the Wealthy plantation. At age sixteen, Holland completed her studies at the Isle of Wight county school. Afterwards […]

Photo credits: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (pictured) was an advocate for the rights of people of color and for women’s rights. In November 1968, Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. On January 25, 1972, she became the first black person to seek a major party’s nod for the […]

Photo credits: Gilles Petard/Redferns Etta James (pictured) was an iconic Grammy Award-winning singer who was most known for her big 20th century hits, such as  “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “At Last.” Her birth name was Jamesetta Hawkins. She was born in Los Angeles, California to a 14-year-old single mother named Dorothy Hawkins on January […]

The turn of the 20th century was significant for Black Americans socially and politically. In the first two decades, both the NAACP and the UNIA-ACL were formed. The latter would be the organization that one of the most popular speakers, playwrights, and actresses of the time, Henrietta Vinton Davis, dedicated her time and influence.   JOINING […]