1850s - Octavius Catto fought for black civil rights a century before Martin Luther King, Jr.
Octavius Valentine Catto (February 22, 1839 – October 10, 1871) was a black educator, intellectual, and civil rights activist in...
1852 - What to a Slave is the 4th of July? read by Morgan Freeman (watch/listen)
Untitled speech originally given by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York....
1870s to 1915 - Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington is one of the most controversial and dominant figures in African American history. According to his autobiography...
1860s to 1913 - Fanny Jackson Coppin (School teacher)
Annie Jackson was born a slave in Washington D.C. on October 15, 1837. She gained her freedom when her aunt was able to purchase her at...
1860s to 1930s - Lucy Parsons
Lucy E. Parsons was a leading figure in American anarchism and the radical labor movement. Born a slave near Waco, Texas, she married...
1862 - The incredible story of a slave who stole a boat, sailed to freedom, and became a hero.
There's no way his plan should've worked. But it did. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls donned a straw hat, hoisted a Confederate flag over...
1863 to 1865 - 54th regiment of African American troops head into combat
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry was the first Northern black volunteer regiment enlisted to fight in the Civil War. Its...
1865 - "We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own."
On the evening of Thursday, the 12th day of January, 1865, the following persons of African descent met by appointment to hold an...
1865 to 1877 - Black Men in Government During Reconstruction (watch)
Associate Professor and Sabo Senior Fellow of Augsburg College, Dr. William Green, describes the gain and loss of elected positions by...
1868 - Oscar Dunn: the former slave who became America’s first Lieutenant Governor
Oscar Dunn’s trajectory from slave to political leader is remarkable. And along the way, his mission was to raise up those around him: he...