Wrought Iron Gate created by Philip Simmons

Local artisans crafted many of Charleston’s famous ornamental gates, like the gate pictured above by Philip Simmons. Decorative wrought-iron gates, fences, and railings are an integral part of Charleston’s identity, and the city’s African American craftsmen played a strong role ...

Watches and locket belonging to Harry and Harriette Moore

These watches and locket belonged to Civil Rights activists Harry and Harriette Moore and were inside their Mims, Florida home the night they were murdered for civil rights activism. This couple’s personal items serve as a stark reminder that those ...

Training aircraft used by Tuskegee Institute

This PT-13D Stearman Kaydet biplane once flew the skies above Moton Field in Alabama as a training aircraft for the Tuskegee Airmen, the Army Air Corps’ first African American aviators. One of the few remaining aircraft utilized by original pilots ...

The Texas Western College Miners 1966 Basketball Team

On Saturday, March 19, 1966, riot police in El Paso, Texas, struggled to calm mobs of people moving through city streets. The residents had not taken to the streets in protest, but rather to celebrate. Just hours earlier, the Texas ...

The Shearer Cottage

This sign once adorned Shearer Inn in the town of Oak Bluffs, located on Martha Vineyard’s Island, Massachusetts. The inn, a frequent meeting place for African American community organizations and activists, provided a safe haven for those seeking refuge from ...

Shawl Given to Harriet Tubman by Queen Victoria

In 1897, Queen Victoria of England, sovereign of the largest empire in the world, presented this silk, lace, and linen shawl to formerly enslaved Harriet Tubman. Victoria’s immense display of respect and admiration underscored Tubman’s amazing life, her pursuit of ...

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 ...

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 ...

Money box used by Bishop Richard Allen

This simple wood and leather money box belonged to Bishop Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and one of the most important religious figures in American history.

Richard Allen is born enslaved in 1760. Separated at ...