The California Gold Rush, which lasted from 1848 to 1860, began on January 24, 1848, when carpenter and sawmill operator James W. Marshall discovered gold. Following Marshall’s discovery, thousands of people flocked to the goldfields in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. By 1860, at least 4,000 African Americans had arrived in California in search of … Read more
Jonathan Jasper Wright, the state’s first African American Supreme Court justice, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Susquehanna County in the state’s northeastern corner. In 1858, Wright moved to Ithaca, New York, and enrolled in the Lancasterian Academy, a school where older students assisted in the education of younger students. … Read more
Valerie Thomas worked with NASA from 1964 until 1995 in a number of roles, including developing real-time computer data systems, conducting large-scale experiments, and managing numerous operations, programs, and facilities. Thomas’ team led the development of “Landsat,” the first satellite to relay photographs from space while overseeing a project for NASA’s image processing systems. In … Read more
This is one of the most heartbreaking and upsetting narratives of lynchings in American history that we have had to report during our time as a platform. This is a harrowing description of how four African American sharecroppers were killed on July 25, 1946, near Moore’s Ford in northeast Georgia. The event is now known … Read more
The Fourth of July is not really something I observe ~ Arielle Gray Growing up, I was never particularly moved by the beautiful fireworks display or the historical studies in school about America’s independence. The cookouts with meats sizzling on the grill and the festive atmosphere of sharing meals with relatives I haven’t seen in … Read more
The historic Trans-Atlantic slave trade was one of the most heinous crimes against black people, resulting in the eviction of millions of Africans. Between 12 and 15 million Africans were transported from Africa to labor on plantations in the Americas as a result of the trade. After the Portuguese began exploring the West Coast of … Read more
The Lynching Of Henry Smith took place in front of an estimated 15,000 onlookers in Paris, Texas, on February 3, 1893. His death was one of the earliest documented public lynchings. Ida B. Wells, a journalist, and anti-lynching activist was struck by the heinousness of Smith’s execution. In her groundbreaking essay The Red Record, which … Read more
The history of America is littered with some of the most atrocious humanitarian crimes ever committed against humans, with majority of the victims being African Americans and other ethnic minorities. One of such practices was the Eugenics programme, which started in America before world war II. It was basically the sterilization or removal of the … Read more
The advancement of Black people in the field of science and technology has been hidden for decades and centuries. The curriculums used in teaching in African and African-American schools were manipulated and created in a way to make sure that the African child, man/woman, does not learn about the technological greatness of his/her ancestors, and … Read more
The contributions of Black inventors to the technological advancement of the world is one subject that must always be in the spotlight of black history all year round, and not just a topic to be discussed during black history month. In a world where African American history has become a threat to so many circles, … Read more
The technological and scientific ingenuity of the Black race (and men such as Jesse Eugene Russell) has been one aspect of world history that has been hidden, under-appreciated, and belittled. Today in Africa, millions of Africans attribute the invention of the smartphone (among many other things) to the Europeans. They do not know that the … Read more