African American History

In "Marshall," a new movie starring Chadwick Boseman and Josh Gad, the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argues a case for a black man accused of rape.

The True Story Behind “Marshall”

What really happened in the trial featured in the new biopic of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

The Contemplative Court at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

In This Quiet Space for Contemplation, a Fountain Rains Down Calming Waters

One year after the Nation’s first black president rang in the opening of the African American History Museum, visitors reflect on its impact

An engraving from later in the 1880s shows rioters burning an orphanage for black children.

The Civil War Draft Riots Brought Terror to New York’s Streets

This dark event remains the largest civil insurrection—the Civil War itself aside—in American history

Garfield Elementary's award-winning drumline performs with the cheerleading squad in celebration of the Anacostia Community Museum's 50th anniversary.

How This Washington, D.C. Museum Redefined What Museums Could Be

Fifty years after its founding, the Smithsonian's beloved Anacostia Community Museum continues to tell stories heard nowhere else

Cypress Swamp. Middle Mississippi, 2014

Photographer Reconstructs 1,400-Mile Route Along the Underground Railroad

'Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad' traces a plausible path a freedom seeker could have taken North

Joan Baez during the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. in 1963.

'We Shall Overcome' Verse Now in the Public Domain

A judge recently struck down the copyright for the first verse of the iconic Civil Rights song

You can see the resemblance in his eyes.

This Nineteenth-Century Genealogist Argued Norse God Odin Was George Washington’s Great-Great-Great... Grandfather

Albert Welles's ideas about whiteness were a reflection of his time, and would be continued into the future

This is Harlem, 1943

Why the Works of Visionary Artist Jacob Lawrence Still Resonate a Century After His Birth

His vibrant and bold paintings tell stories of liberation, resistance and resilience

When the moment came to ring the Freedom Bell alongside President Obama and the First Lady, Ruth Bonner was overjoyed.

Ruth Odom Bonner, Who Rang the Freedom Bell With President Obama, Passes Away at 100

Looking back on the redoubtable woman who helped inaugurate the African American History Museum

Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

The Case Thurgood Marshall Never Forgot

Fifty years ago today, Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court justice. He kept telling the story of the Groveland Four

On May 18, 1893, Anna Julia Cooper delivered an address at the World's Congress of Representative Women, saying, famously, "The white woman could least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman, doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent."

This Video Breaks Down the ABCs of Intersectionality

The National Museum of African American History and Culture explores the long legacy of women who shaped the feminist sociological theory

Tuskegee Airmen and P-47

Why African-American Soldiers Saw World War II as a Two-Front Battle

Drawing the connection between fascism abroad and hate at home, pre-Civil Rights activists declared the necessity of “double victory”

Unionville today: The photographer used a process called intaglio printing to give her pictures an antique appearance.

After the Civil War, African-American Veterans Created a Home of Their Own: Unionville

One-hundred-fifty years later, the Maryland town remains a bastion of resilience and a front line in the battle over Confederate monuments

Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial features General Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis—and has stirred up controversy in Georgia for years.

What Will Happen to Stone Mountain, America’s Largest Confederate Memorial?

The Georgia landmark is a testament to the enduring legacy of white supremacy

"Our hearts are with the families of the victims—the three who lost their lives, the 35 injured and the millions across the country who are traumatized by this dark chapter in our nation’s history."

Smithsonian's African American History Museum Releases Statement on Charlottesville and Confederate Memorials

The events, says director Lonnie Bunch, are part of a 'long legacy of violence intended to intimidate and marginalize African Americans and Jews'

Florence Harding put up with a lot during her life, including Warren G. Harding's constant philandering.

Florence Harding, Not Eleanor Roosevelt, May Have Created the Modern First Lady

She did things her own way, and helped to set a precedent for the First Ladies who followed her

Rashid Johnson, "Thurgood in the House of Chaos"

Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Legacy of Lynching’ Exhibition Confronts Racial Terror

Video testimony and research findings supplement selections from the museum’s holdings

William Maples holds a bone fragment during a presentation about the Romanov Investigations, circa 1992.

William R. Maples Popularized Forensic Anthropology Long Before CSI

Maples worked on a number of high-profile cases that helped to bring the field of forensic anthropology to prominence

Christylez Bacon at the Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Christylez Bacon on Finding His Voice through Music

The Grammy-nominated artist takes inspiration from weaving together seemingly disparate musical forms

A census enumerator's records from the 1790 census, the first-ever to be conducted in the United States.

The First US Census Only Asked Six Questions

America’s founders agreed that the census was important, but it wasn’t long

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