The lynching of Jesse Washington is remembered as the ‘Waco Horror,’ for its brutality, long duration, and large public participation. Photo shows the burnt remains of Washington’s body. May 15, 1916.
Southern jails made money leasing convicts for forced labor in the Jim Crow South
Juvenile convicts at work in the fields in Southern chain gang. Southern jails made money leasing convicts for forced labor in the Jim Crow South. Circa. 1903
Young African-American woman posing for photograph in Detroit, Michigan circa 1948
This young African-American woman posing for photograph in Detroit, Michigan circa 1948 is my maternal grandmother, Vivian Margaret Nance.
Just A Few Bad Apples?
African Americans quite literally a century ago (circa 1919-1920) holding a “Fight Police Brutality” sign before a protest demonstration. Incidents of police brutality against African-American communities aren’t isolated incidents as some would like you to believe. This has been our …
Anonymous African American lynching victim of 1925
Anonymous African American lynching victim of 1925. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 4,084 African-Americans were lynched between 1877 and 1950 in the South. More than 73 percent of lynchings in the post-Civil War period occurred in the Southern states. Not …
A Flame of Hope After Richmond Burns
A newly freed African American group of men and a few children posing by a canal against the ruins of Richmond, Virginia. In April 1865, the Confederate government fled Richmond as Union forces approached the city. As the Confederates fled, …
The Price of Freedom
Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, were part of the defending forces of Washington, D.C. Photo shows two rows of African Americans holding rifles at Fort Lincoln in 1864.
African American extended family arriving in Chicago from the rural South, ca. 1920
African American extended family arriving in Chicago from the rural South, ca. 1920. Between 1910 and 1930, some 1.6 MILLION Blacks, many of grandchildren of slaves, left the small, rural towns of the South and migrated North to industrial cities …
All African-American football team in Detroit, Michigan, ca. 1920
African-American football team in Detroit, Michigan circa 1920s. My great-grandfather Hartwell Phillip Nance Sr. is pictured in the last row.
Former slaves employed as servants to Union officers. August, 1864
Four union officers in front of tent, with two Africans-American during the Petersburg Campaign. Many former slaves, emancipated in 1863, were employed a servants to Union officers. August, 1864.
Marcus Garvey, Jamaican Black Nationalist and Separatist, ca. 1920
Marcus Garvey, Jamaican Black Nationalist and Separatist, ca. 1920. In August 1920, his ‘Universal Negro Improvement Association,’ , claimed 4 million members and 25,000 attended its Madison Square Ga Read more
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), African American abolitionist, writer and statesman
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), former slave and abolitionist broke whites’ stereotypes about African Americans in the decades prior to the U.S. Civil War. ca 1870s.