Black History Month is celebrated every February to honor the achievements of African Americans who have shaped American history. Historian Carter G. Woodson hoped to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization by establishing Negro History Week. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that included both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays. The week was later expanded to a month in 1976 during the United States bicentennial.
PHOTO: On March 20, 1969, Black hospital workers at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston went on strike to protest the firing of twelve employees and to call for higher wages and union recognition.
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On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, making him a symbol of Black freedom for years to come. As the war dragged on he began to recruit Blacks, free and enslaved, to the...
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After the U.S. Army occupied Memphis on June 6, 1862, thousands of enslaved people escaped nearby plantations and took refuge in the city. They were often penniless, bringing with them only the...
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This soldier is a member of the 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort Pickering, who has been sent to take freedpeople to safety. Union forces captured Memphis on June 6, 1862 and took over...
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The daughter of this family exemplifies a young freedwoman who has learned to read and write, and assists in one of the twelve missionary schools for freedpeople in Memphis. Most of the twenty-two...
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In 1866 the Irish population of Memphis numbered in the thousands. Many Irish immigrants had arrived in the U.S. in the 1840s and ‘50s, escaping famine in their native land. In the months before the...
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This woman represents a member of the family who is living with her kinfolk. Memphis was crowded and expensive, and extended Black families frequently shared living spaces. Black families in Memphis...
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For three days - from May 1st to May 3rd, 1866 - a white mob violently assaulted Memphis’s Black community, burning Black schools and churches and attacking the homes of African Americans. Forty-six...
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In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant was elected president with the slogan, “Let us have peace.” But across the South, white resistance to Black citizenship during Reconstruction often turned violent, leading to...
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At a congressional investigation Black women came forward and testified before the committee, making a courageous, detailed statement against sexual violence. Nevertheless, no one was convicted and no...
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The father of the family in this scene represents a U.S. Army soldier, a member of the 3rd U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery who has been wounded during the violence taking place outside. On April 30, 1866...
