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
James Edward Maceo West’s work revolutionized how people around the world hear and transmit sound. In 1962, West, then a Bell Laboratories research scientist, collaborated with his colleague Dr. Gerhard M. Sessler to develop the foil electret microphone. Until then, most microphones, which convert sound into an electrical signal, required a large and expensive battery … 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
Not until recently did most commentators on African literary history believe that African societies had any form of writing tradition. Since the rediscovery of ancient manuscript collections, with some dating back to at least the 8th century AD, this perception has gradually lost popularity. Just about 250,000 old manuscripts from the libraries of Timbuktu still … 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
After the Berlin conference of 1884-1885, various European nations set out to mount their flags all over Africa, murder the people, and then steal their resources to make Europe richer. King Leopold II of Belgium, through his employed conquerors, set sail for Congo and declared it to be his territory while exerting physical threats to … Read more
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” which is often referred to as the Black national anthem in the United States of America is a hymn that was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and music was made out of the poem by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for the anniversary of Abraham … Read more
The History of the Black Panther Party in America is traced to the movement formed by two Black American revolutionaries in the latter part of the twentieth century known as the Black Panther Party. The activities of the black panthers were aimed at tackling the failure of the civil rights movement to improve the condition … Read more