Sophiatown, also known as Sof’town or Kofifi, was a vibrant cultural and intellectual hub in Johannesburg, South Africa, before its destruction under apartheid. A unique freehold township, it was one of the few urban areas where Black South Africans...
Lemuel Walters was a Black man in Longview, Texas, who was lynched in June 1919 after being accused of making “indecent advances” toward a white woman. His murder was one of the many acts of racial violence that erupted...
Willie Francis was an African American teenager sentenced to death in 1945 after a flawed murder trial. At 17, he survived a botched execution, becoming the first known person to survive the electric chair. However, his appeals failed, and...
Thomas Moss was a successful Black entrepreneur and postman in Memphis, Tennessee, known for co-owning the People’s Grocery, a thriving business that provided an alternative to white-owned stores in the area. In 1892, Moss was falsely accused of inciting...
The Ohio River Uprising of 1826 was a bold act of resistance by approximately 75 enslaved Africans being transported south by Edward Stone, a notorious slave trader, and his associates. On September 17, while traveling down the Ohio River,...
Lucie and Thornton Blackburn were born into slavery in the United States, they escaped to freedom in Canada, where they not only built a new life but also made significant contributions to their adopted homeland. Among their many achievements,...
Antoine Lavalette, a French Jesuit priest and missionary, is remembered not only for his involvement in spreading Catholicism but also for his dark history of brutality. Born on October 26, 1708, Lavalette was sent to the Caribbean island of...
Ona Judge Staines, also known as Oney Judge, was an enslaved woman who famously escaped the household of the first president of the United States, George Washington, and became a symbol of resistance against slavery.
Ona Judge was born around...
Louis Hughes, was one of the many enslaved African Americans who experienced the horrors of slavery in the United States. Hughes’ story, recounted in his memoir Thirty Years a Slave, reveals the cruelty of a system that dehumanized African...
During the brutal era of chattel slavery in the United States, slave owners viewed literacy as a direct threat to the institution of slavery. They feared it could empower their slaves to pursue freedom, access abolitionist literature, or organize...
