Riot pennies charred during the 1921 Tulsa race riot

The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot is one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. At the time, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was one of the most affluent African American communities in the country. African American-owned ...

Playbill for Ira Aldridge at the Theatre Royal

One of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors of the 19th century, American-born Ira Aldridge achieved fame on the stages of Europe, where he found professional opportunities that did not exist for black actors in the United States. This 1857 playbill ...

Student Nurse’s Uniform and Yearbook from Homer G. Phillips Hospital School of Nursing

Pauline Brown Payne wore this uniform while attending the Homer G. Phillips Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1940s. She graduated from the school in 1947 and worked as a nurse in the hospital from 1947 ...

Marian Anderson’s Outfit at 1939 Concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

On April 9, 1939, a crowd of more than 75,000 people gathered along the National Mall’s reflecting pool for an impromptu concert organized by the NAACP and the Department of the Interior. Before them, on the steps of the Lincoln ...

Muhammad Ali’s Headgear and items from the 5th Street Gym

Boxers training at Miami Beach’s historic 5^th Street Gym once used this corner stool and bell. These boxers included Muhammad Ali, who wore this training headgear while conditioning at the gym in the 1960s and 1970s.

Then known as Cassius ...

Honor King/End Racism (Photos and Sign)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.  On April 8, an estimated 40,000 people marched in silent protest through the streets of Memphis. Many of the participants carried signs created specifically ...

Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

In 1974, poet and playwright Ntozake Shange debuted her groundbreaking work, For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, at The Bacchanal, a women’s bar in Albany, California. Using an innovative form she defined as a “choreopoem”—a ...

Doorway façade from the Baxter Terrace Housing Project, Newark, New Jersey

With the population of urban areas swelling through the first half of the 20^th century, middle and low-income families had trouble finding adequate housing. Only with the 1937 passage of the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act, did the federal government accelerate and ...

Ecuadorian Boat Seat with Spider Web

This seat represents the shared connections between the cultures of the transatlantic slave trade in the Americas. Afro Ecuadorian Deborah Azareno sat on this boat seat as she traveled in canoes along the rivers of Ecuador’s coastal Esmeraldas province. She ...

Cleveland Stadium and Jim Brown

Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown wore this jersey during his nine-year career with the Cleveland Browns. Among the most recognized football greats in American history, Brown’s legacy encompassed breaking down racial barriers in Hollywood, building African-American owned businesses, ...