On May 31 and June 1, 1921, white mobs invaded Greenwood, one of the most successful Black districts in the country. Police disarmed Black residents defending their homes while deputizing attackers. Airplanes dropped incendiaries. Entire city blocks burned. More than 1,200 homes and businesses were destroyed. As many as 300 Black people were killed. Thousands were left homeless. No one was held accountable.

The story of enslaved people is usually framed as labor in the most generic sense. Bodies in fields. Anonymous workers. A blurred mass. That framing is both inaccurate and convenient. The truth is far more powerful. Enslaved Africans brought with them deep reservoirs of knowledge that reshaped the landscape of the Americas. They were highly skilled artisans and agricultural experts long before they arrived here. Their expertise became the backbone of colonial economies.

COINTELPRO targeted militants and Black youth, often kids under 18, whose leadership, discipline, and community organizing scared the political establishment far more than any weapon.

When people say "Africans sold Africans," they often try to erase the massive imbalance of power and scale. This phrase ignores the structure that shaped individual choices and the broader system engineered by European powers.

In 2019, Nikole Hannah-Jones launched The 1619 Project, a pivotal initiative that reexamines American history through the lens of slavery. By putting the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 at the forefront, the project challenges the oversimplified and often romanticized narrative of American origins. It exposes how slavery has been a vital force in shaping the United States. This bold assertion has led to significant controversy resulting in the book

And that’s why they’re banned. This series reads the books they don’t want you to. We’ll explore why each work was censored, what truth it threatened, and how those same forces still shape today’s political, racial, and cultural battles. You’ll see patterns. You’ll recognize language. And you’ll realize that the fight against banned books is the fight for memory itself.

Timbuktu is often mentioned in conversations about isolated places, but this perception overlooks its vibrant history as a center of intellectual and cultural exchange during the 14th and 15th centuries. This city was once a focal point of an African renaissance, where scholars, poets, and students gathered to share ideas and foster learning.

Bayard Rustin deserves recognition alongside the prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement. As a master strategist, pacifist, and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., Rustin was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, which remains one of the most significant demonstrations in American history.

Alberta Jones was a true pioneer whose story deserves recognition and celebration. In 1959, she achieved a remarkable milestone by becoming the first Black lawyer to pass the Kentucky bar exam. At a time when segregation was deeply rooted in society and the legal system, Alberta opened her own law practice.

Most U.S. history textbooks present a sanitized, simplified version of the past, one that often glosses over or outright erases the voices of ordinary people. Instead of telling the full story of struggle, resistance, and resilience, these narratives tend to focus on political leaders, wars, and economic milestones, while leaving out the stories that truly shape our society.

Florida’s history with slavery doesn’t show up in the curriculum the way Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi’s does and that’s not an accident. Florida was a place of contradictions: where freedom was promised to the desperate, and where that freedom was violently revoked once the United States claimed the land.