Black History Month: Online Exhibits

In 2019 and 2020, the National Park Service is commemorating a significant moment in American history: the landing of the first enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America in August 1619 at Virginia's Point Comfort, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument.

Journey around the world and back in time as editor Aric Jenkins explores the sizable impact Black societies have made on ancient civilizations.

The past, present, and future of the Black experience in the United States

A photo exhibit exploring life through the lens of Kenneth Space

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was established in 1971 to put forth policy and legislation that ensured equal rights, opportunity, and access to Black Americans and other marginalized communities.

This set contains photos and documents from the National Archives that relate to African American History Month in February.

Examine collections of the Museum's key resources on major themes in American history and social studies teaching. Additional resources can be found in the main search areas of the website.

"The Ruth Sigler Avery Collection consists of research notes, photocopied documents, books, videos, audio tapes and transcripts of interviews, and handwritten and computer generated writings."

"The National Museum of African American History and Culture collects materials to help fill the silences in our nation’s memory around events such as the Tulsa Race Massacre and its reverberations, preserving and sharing wider stories of Black communities in Oklahoma, and centering the testimonies of survivors and their descendants."

"This guide is intended to supplement the AARC Tulsa Race Massacre subject guide and to point to resources that may be found in the Research Center or are available from other reliable entities online."

A collection of resources concerning the Tulsa Race Massacre curated by the Greenwood Cultural Center

"From May 31 to June 1, 1921, Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is destroyed by white mobs. This guide provides access to material related to the "Tulsa Race Massacre" in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers."

"Selected from AIGA's prestigious Design Archives and Design Journeys
series, this collection celebrates African American history and culture
throughout the last century of communication design."

"The African American Experience in World War I "

"In 1866, Congress created six segregated regiments which were soon consolidated into four black regiments. They were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. They were to become known as "The Buffalo Soldiers.""

"This three-part web exhibit highlights the achievements of Washington, Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen. "

"Whether they fought stateside or overseas, in integrated or segregated units, or during World War II, Korea, or Vietnam, the African American veterans profiled here persisted past prejudice to serve their country with honor."

This subject portal highlights records of Federal agencies and collections that relate to Black life during the World War I Era.

Photographs of Buffalo Soldiers serving at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, during the early 20th century recently came to light at the National Archives.

"Aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative"

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.

"African American Perspectives" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture."

"The Slave Societies Digital Archive preserves endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related to Africans and African-descended peoples in slave societies."

"This collection consists of 105 library books and manuscripts, totalling approximately 8,700 pages."

The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history.

"President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free.""

"Oral histories and interviews with African Americans who endured the hardships of slavery. "

"From Rosa Park's arrest to the Freedom Rides"

"In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional."

"There are moments in our nation’s history when individuals unite and take courageous steps to fulfill the promise of democracy. One hundred years separate the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington. "

"This online collection presents newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the African American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous orators, authors, and journalists of the 19th century."

"Includes over 100,000 items"

"ProQuest have launched a new collection of primary sources called Black Freedom Struggle in the United States and made it freely available for students and researchers to access."

"An extensive list of articles from archived digital issues in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, spanning a wide range of topics from literature and music to politics and activism."

"Angela Davis (b. 1944) is an American political activist, professor, and author who was an active member in the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party."

"Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth, would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century."

"The oral memoirs of a selected group of older black women."

Eileen Southern (1920–2002) became the first African American woman tenured in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

"African American women were the critical mass, the grassroots leaders challenging America to embrace justice and equality for all."

"In 1969, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman to serve in Congress. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 and the Congressional Women's Caucus in 1977. Chisholm was also the first woman and the first African American to seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1972."

Highlights from the National Portrait Gallery Collection

"This exhibition highlights several of the ways that abolitionists engaged with the arts to agitate for enslaved people’s liberty in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. "

"An Exploration of James Baldwin’s Life and Works Through the Powerful Lens of His House “Chez Baldwin” in St. Paul de Vence, France "

Records at the National Archives related to the Black Arts Movement primarily focus on individual artists and their interaction with various Federal agencies.

"Rare material that reveal the sometimes exuberant, sometimes painful, but always vibrant art and life of jazz singers."

"Consists of approximately one hundred sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia. "

Ragtime, a uniquely American, syncopated musical phenomenon, has been a strong presence in musical composition, entertainment, and scholarship for over a century. See, hear, explore and learn!

Images from the serial publication designed for African-American children by educational advocate W.E.B. Du Bois

The personal library and collections of Ralph Ellison

"The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversaries of the first Black superhero and superheroine characters in comic book history."

"This exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversaries of 1970's Blaxploitation films and the funky movie posters created to promote them."