The Unhidden Minute

George Washington Carver, born into slavery around 1864, was a prominent Black American scientist, educator, and inventor. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Carver dedicated his life to…

During the 1920s, Bessie Coleman (1892—1926) gained recognition as an aerial stunt pilot. An original barnstormer, she captivated audiences with aerobatic feats of daring at airshows across the Ameri…

In 1892 a man of mixed heritage named Homer Plessy, who identified as a person of color, refuse to abide to a Louisiana state law that mandated the segregation of railroad passenger cars. Siting the …

Maggie Lena Walker (July 15, 1864 – December 15, 1934) was a Black American businesswoman and teacher. In 1903 she was the first Black woman to charter a bank and serve as its president in the United…

Before the turn of the 20th Century, a group of 20 Black Soldiers in the United States Army were tasked with taking part in a unique experiment to see if the horse could be replaced by the bicycle. K…

Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, the United States Congress formally approved the formation of six segregated regiments of Black soldiers in the U.S. Army. These regiments were the 9t…

The United States presidential election of 1876 was a pivotal moment in American history. The two major candidates were Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. The election resu…

Not long after the end of the Civil War, during the era of Reconstruction seven Black men were elected to the United States Congress. These senators and representatives were sent by their constituent…

Hiram R. Revels was a Black American politician and minister born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1827. Ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church he served a teacher of religion in I…

Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) was a Black American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist. She is noted as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book…

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931)  was a Black American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the Nat…

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a racially tolerant and integrated community William Edward Burghardt Du Bois  was a Black American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, …

After achieving freedom at the end of the Civil War, Booker Taliaferro Washington became one of the most famous Black American leaders, authors, and educators in the country. He was of the last gener…

Robert Smalls was a Black American politician, businessman, soldier and sailor. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil…

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822[1] – March 10, 1913)

was a Black American woman  who led enslaved people along the Underground Railroad to freedom.  Through this network of secret ro…

Sgt. Major William Harvey Carney born February 29, 1840  was the first Black American whose acts of valor earned the Medal of Honor. During the Civil War as a member of the 54th Massachusetts Volunte…

Mary Smith Peake was an American teacher and humanitarian born in Hampton Virginia. Among a class of affluent free Black aristocrats during the Civil War she is best known for starting a school for t…

Early in the Civil War on May 23, 1861, three men escaped enslavement and turned themselves over to the Union Army at Fort Monroe Virginia as refugees. Their names were Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, …

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1818 ) was a Black American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping enslavement in Mary…

Mary Ellen Pleasant was a free Black entrepreneur and abolitionist at the height of the California gold rush. Born in 1814 Pleasant wrote that her mother was a "full-blooded Negress from Louisiana" a…