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.
While scholars debate the first Power Couple of the 20th Century who were African American, Richard Selcer, a historian of the Fort Worth, Texas region, makes the case for the little-known couple, Manet and Stephen Fowler, of Fort Worth and New York City. See his … Read MoreManet Harrison And Stephen Fowler: The First Black Power Couple?
In the following article Wyoming historian Brigida R. Blasi explores the history of now nearly forgotten Dana, a small predominately black coal mining town about 150 miles west of Cheyenne. Here is her account. The town of Dana has largely been forgotten in the history … Read MoreDana, Wyoming, A Black Town in the Coal Mining West
In their latest book on the Black soldiers who helped build the Alcan Highway during World War II, authors Christine and Dennis McClure encountered a story of injustice in the frigid north. See a description of their new book, A Different Race, to get a … Read MoreInjustice in Alaska Territory: The World War II Court-martial of Ten Black Soldiers Who Helped Build the ALCAN Highway
In the article below, Dr. Clarence Spigner, an epidemiologist and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, assesses the early African American responses to COVID-19. COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory pandemic disease, stands for coronavirus disease, 2019. Symptoms for possible … Read MoreCOVID-19: The Myth and the Reality for Black America
In the following article, historian Nafeesa Muhammad describes the often lauded but understudied economic program of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Here she focuses on the economic development plans put in place under the NOI’s longtime leader, Elijah Muhammad and their impact on African American … Read MoreThe Nation of Islam’s Economic Program, 1934-1975
In this article below historian Charles B. Kastner describes his new book, Race Across America, on Eddie Gardner, the now virtually unknown marathon runner who achieved nation fame in his footraces across the United States in the 1920s. Race across America: Eddie Gardner and the … Read MoreResurrecting the Legacy of Eddie Gardner
In the article below, Dr. Uchenna Umeh, a former San Antonio, Texas physician, briefly describes how mental health among African Americans was viewed and treated by the American medical community from the antebellum period until today. In the process she describes how those attitudes have … Read MoreMental Illness in Black Community, 1700-2019: A Short History
In the description of his 2015 book, African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement, historian Vincent Intondi describes the long but little-known history of black Americans in the Nuclear Disarmament Movement. His essay, which appears below, tells the compelling … Read MoreFighting For Freedom, Fighting Against the Bomb: African Americans and the Campaign for a Nuclear-Free World, 1945-
Most historians have considered the period between 1877, the end of Reconstruction, and 1900 to be “The Nadir” or the low point in terms of African American political rights. Some have even described it as the worst period for blacks since emancipation. Historian Melissa Milewski … Read MoreFighting Jim Crow in the 19th Century South: The Untold Story
