The Mentoring Page

From left to right: Hampton Student Teaching Former Enslaved Virginians to Read and Write, ca. 1880, Mentoring Young Black Men Today, Mentoring Young Black Women Today

It goes almost without saying that many of the visitors who use BlackPast.org are concerned about social justice issues and often involve themselves locally with mentoring efforts for young people and particularly young African Americans. Let BlackPast.org assist your effort by introducing your mentees, from the elementary school to college level, to the depth and breadth of African American history, heritage, and achievement. We want to help your mentoring process build self-esteem among these young men and women, challenge stereotypes, and remind them of the accomplishments of thousands of people of African ancestry around the world and throughout human history. Listed below are pages that we think would be particularly valuable to share with the young people you are assisting. Do contact us at [email protected] to see if we can be of additional help in your efforts.

African American AmbassadorsFew people know that over 140 black men and women have represented the United States in countries throughout the world since 1869. These pages include the profiles of each of them.

African American FirstsA complete list of African American first achievers from 1641 to today.

African American Historical LandmarksThere are hundreds of landmarks across the United States depicting important people and events in black history. The major ones are listed here.

Black History MonthEvery month is black history month at BlackPast.org. Nonetheless we celebrate every February by highlighting a particular black endeavor.

BlackPast.org in the ClassroomThis page is designed for teachers but there is much useful information here for mentors.

Interactive Map: BlackPast.org and the United StatesEntries on African American history associated with each state in the U.S.

Interactive Map: BlackPast.org and the WorldThe entries here are of people of African ancestry in more than 160 nations.

GenealogyThe information on this page helps individuals find their family history

Historically Black Colleges and UniversitiesBrief histories of over 110 HBCUs are located here along with website links to each campus

Youth LiteratureBooks written for people under the age of 18

The STEM PageHidden No More: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

BlackPast TimelinesFilterable by year range, year, event keyword, and location