History

Autherine Lucy: The Black Woman Whose Admission to the University of Alabama Sparked a Riot in 1956

Autherine Juanita Lucy was an American activist whose admission to the University of Alabama sparked a riot, leading to her suspension and eventual expulsion from the school in 1956. Born on October 5, 1929, in Shiloh, Alabama, Autherine Lucy was...

Jesse Thornton: The Alabama Man Who Was Lynched for Not Addressing a White Man as “Mister”

On June 22, 1940, in the small town of Luverne, Alabama, Jesse Thornton, a 26-year-old African-American man, was lynched for allegedly failing to address a white man as "Mister." Thornton managed a chicken farm and had gone to town...

Chief Kapeni: The African Leader Whose Trust in the British Led to His Downfall and the Subjugation of His People

Chief Kapeni was a prominent Yao chief in present-day Malawi who, in the 1800s, made a decision that would eventually lead to his death and the capture of his kingdom. Ignoring the warnings of neighboring chiefs, he gave British...

South Carolina Negro Act of 1740: The Code that Prohibited Enslaved Africans from Learning to Read

Passed by the South Carolina Assembly on the 10th of May, 1740, the Negro Act was a comprehensive set of laws aimed at controlling and subjugating the enslaved population within the colony. Among its most notorious provisions was the...

Remembering George Meadows: The African American Man Lynched Under False Allegations of Rape and Murder in 1889

Lynched on January 15, 1889, in Jefferson County, Alabama,George Meadows was a victim of a society plagued by racism, false accusations, and mob justice. The events leading to Meadows's lynching began on January 14, 1889, when a white woman reported...

Ahmadou Bamba: The Senegalese Leader Exiled by the French for Inciting “Anti-Colonial Disobedience” in 1895

Ahmadou Bamba, also known to followers as "The Servant of the Messenger" and Serigne Touba or "Sheikh of Touba," was a religious leader in Senegal and the founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood (the Muridiyya) who was exiled by...

The Volta-Bani War of 1915: French West Africans’ Rebellion Against French Military Conscription During World War I

The Volta-Bani War was a major yet obscure anti-colonial rebellion which took place in French West Africa, in the areas of modern Burkina Faso and Mali between 1915 and 1917. This conflict emerged as indigenous African forces, uniting various...

Arthur St. Clair: The Black Minister Lynched for Presiding Over a Mixed-Race Marriage in 1877

Arthur St. Clair was an African-American leader whose life was tragically cut short in 1877. His crime? Presiding over the marriage of a black man and a white woman. St. Clair was born into slavery on the May plantation in...

Lacy Mitchell: The Man Lynched for Testifying Against Two White Men Accused of Raping a Young Black Girl in 1930

Lacy Mitchell, was a 53-year-old farmer residing in Gwinnett County, Georgia, who met a tragic fate in 1930 at the hands of two white men, Jack Bradley and O. E. Allen for testifying against two white men accused of...

Mandume: The African King Who Led an Uprising Against Portuguese Colonial Rule in 1914

Mandume ya Ndemufayo was the last king of the Oukwanyama people, a subgroup of the Ovambo ethnic group in southern Angola and northern Namibia. He is known for leading an uprising against Portuguese colonial rule during World War I.
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The 1919 Lynching of American Veteran Bud Johnson, Whose Skull Was Shared as a Souvenir

Johnson, was a 34-year-old African American farmer and World War I veteran, who was tortured and killed by a...
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