AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
PERSPECTIVES
Perspectives on African American History features accounts and descriptions of important but little known events in African American history recalled often by those who were witnesses or participants or viewpoints about historical developments shaping the contemporary black world. Many of these accounts will be instant primary sources available to current visitors to BlackPast and to future historians. Each article is accompanied by a brief biography and photo of its author.
Search Perspective Articles
The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: One Tennessee Community’s Odyssey from Slavery to Freedom
In the following account author, historian, and genealogist John F. Baker, Jr. describes the multi-year search for his enslaved ancestors...
Confounded: The Enigma of “Blind Tom” Wiggins
“I am astounded. I cannot account for it, no one can. No one understands it,” a St Louis man uttered...
The Black Presence in Theater through the Centuries in the Historical Dictionary of African American Theater
In the following account the authors Anthony D. Hill, associate professor of drama at The Ohio State University, and Douglas...
The Black Laws of Oregon, 1844-1857
Beginning with the Exclusion Law of 1844 enacted by the provisional government of the region, Oregon passed a series of...
The Manumission of Monimia Travers: A Slave Freed at Fort Vancouver
Few people identify slavery with Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. However, there were slaves in the region particularly in the...
John McWhorter, “Celebrate the Triumph of Ordinary Black Americans”
In the article below social commentator John H. McWhorter challenges the nation to think differently about Black History Month. He...
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Long Struggle for Civil Rights in the United States
In 2009 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People celebrated its 100th anniversary. In the article below historian...
A New Era Begins: The Significance of the Barack Obama Victory, 2008
In the article below Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large provides his perspective on the importance of the Obama victory for...
“Yes We Can”: Barack Obama’s Road to the White House, 2008
In the following account California State University, Fresno history professor Malik Simba summarizes the 2008 presidential campaign of Illinois Senator...
