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.
For more than 25 years the Innocence Project has been shedding light on systemic failures of the United States criminal justice system. The authors of the Bill of Rights in the 1780s and 1790s enumerated more than a dozen specific protections for criminal defendants including the right … Read MoreThe Innocence Project: A Short History Since 1983
In the article below retired California State University, Fresno historian Robert Mikell explores the history of the only all-black town created in the Golden State. He traces that history including the role of its principal founder, Colonel Allen Allensworth, from 1908. Allensworth, the first town … Read MoreThe History of Allensworth, California (1908- )
In the following article sociologist and African American Studies professor Patricia A. Banks describes the rise of private art collectors and collections among African Americans. Her article also shows the growing acceptance of African American art and artists in major museums and galleries across the … Read MoreCollecting African American Art: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Obama Era
In her new book, Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education, sociologist Christi M. Smith reveals a largely forgotten history of early efforts to integrate higher education in the years following the Civil War. This history pushes us to consider the … Read MoreChallenging Caste and Race: The Campaign for Integrated Higher Education in the Reconstruction Era
“Image Courtesy of Michael Eric Dyson” On January 17, 2017, eighty-eight years after the birth of the most revered civil rights leader in the 20th Century, Georgetown University scholar, social activist, reverend, and best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson describes in his new book, Tears We … Read MoreTears We Cannot Stop: Michael Eric Dyson Explains Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy to Us Today
In the 1971 Woody Allen film, “Bananas,” a fellow employee asks Allen’s character, “What would you have been if you finished school?” Allen’s character answers, “I was in the black studies program. By now I could have been black.” Allen’s attempted humorous jab at early … Read MoreWhat Can I Do with A Black Studies Major? Five Hundred Answers Provided by Robert Fikes, Jr.
In the essay below, journalist and historian Amina Hassan describes her 2015 biography of Loren Miller, a significant but understudied figure in the long twentieth century campaign for civil rights and racial justice. This book on Loren Miller’s life has its origins in my growing … Read MoreLoren Miller: Legal Crusader in the Long Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twentieth Century
In the article below, Kimberley Mangun, an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah, describes her ongoing research on the Birmingham (Alabama) World and its longtime editor, Emory O. Jackson. Mangun is writing a cultural biography of Jackson and the … Read MoreEmory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama
Seattle Photographer Al Smith, Sr. at MOHAI Opening of His Exhibit, Jazz on the Spot (Photo by Howard Giske, MOHAI) In the article below, Al “Butch” Smith Jr., PhD, and Peter Blecha describe the process by which the family of prominent Seattle photographer Al Smith … Read MoreA Successful Decision-Making Strategy for Choosing Where to Donate Your Historical Memorabilia
In the following article Ginger Adams Otis, a staff writer at the New York Daily News and a longtime city reporter, describes her more-than-decade-long research following the evolution of a landmark civil rights case brought by the Vulcan Society, a determined group of activist black … Read MoreFirefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate the New York City Fire Department
