Gertie Brown & Saint Suttle embrace in a silent film from 1898.

The Jones family helped to preserve the Florida Keys. Israel from NC & Mozelle from the Bahamas (pictured) met in Miami & began purchasing & farming land in the Keys in 1897. Their son, Lancelot, sold their 277 acres to the NPS for preservation in 1970 despite much higher offers from developers.

This photograph from 1895 includes some of the Bahamian families who helped to establish Coconut Grove, the founding neighborhood of what is now the city of Miami, Florida. The woman holding the child is Mariah Brown. She built one of the first homes in Miami in 1890; it’s now a historic landmark.

Portrait of the Washington family c. 1789. The identity of the Black gentleman is uncertain (see ALT). George Washington Parke Custis (bottom left) fathered children with 2 enslaved women from Mount Vernon - which is why at least 2 of Martha Washington’s great-granddaughters were born enslaved.

Nannie Helen Burroughs, educator, entrepreneur, women’s rights advocate, daughter of formerly enslaved parents, founded a school in Washington DC in 1901. She observed, “Education & justice are democracy’s only life insurance.”

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” ~Ida B. Wells. Image: University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center.

“Capers’ experience in the American Revolution is… representative of those of a generation of arms-bearing Black Patriots who fought & bled to help achieve American independence.”

Explorer Matthew Henson reached the North Pole in 1909. The expedition included Robert Peary and four Inuit men. Henson and his wife are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

In 1924, Alma Thomas was the 1st graduate of Howard University’s Fine Arts program & the 1st woman in the US to hold bachelor’s degree in art. Her work has been collected by the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum of Art, & the White House. This piece sold at a Christie’s auction for 2.6 million USD.

Renowned performer Josephine Baker was a WWII hero & the 1st American woman awarded the Croix de Guerre. As an operative for the French Resistance, she collected intelligence, carried coded messages (in invisible ink on her musical scores), & sheltered Jewish refugees & resistance fighters.

“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence.” Bayard Rustin

Juana Ramírez was born in Venezuela in 1790. The daughter of an enslaved African woman & a Spanish general, she commanded an all-female artillery unit in 1813 “instrumental in resisting Spanish soldiers’ attempts to reconquer independent Venezuela” & is interred in the National Mausoleum of Heroes.

Born in Trinidad, Dr. John Alcindor earned his MD in Scotland in 1899 & was a physician, political activist, & senior district medical officer in London. He was awarded a Red Cross medal for his work treating the wounded in WWI. His great-nephew is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Happy Emancipation Day and Happy Happy Haitian Independdence Day!

Emancipation Day parade in Lincolnville, Florida, January 1, 1920 - image by photographer Richard Twine who was born there in 1896, a town formed by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War & a vigorous, dynamic Black community despite legalized segregation in early 20th century Florida.

As Kevin Levin observes, on January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, an interracial crowd had gathered in Port Royal, SC, where Black Union soldiers had trained to serve & save the nation. Upon hearing the announcement, the crowd began singing ‘My Country tis of Thee.’

Wallace and William Goodridge were pioneers of the medium of photography. Here the Goodridge brothers are posing in the photography studio they established in Michigan in 1847 bidding Happy New Year to All.

Raymond Schuyler & Four of His Children c. 1904 in Worcester, MA. Portrait made by photographer William Bullard. Mr. Schuyler was an active member of All Saints Episcopal Church, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, & the NAACP.

"They pulled her out of Clinton High and moved to Los Angeles at the urging of an uncle of hers who lived there. After finishing school, she began a long career as a pediatric nurse in California."

#tdih 1521: enslaved Africans on a Santo Domingo sugar plantation owned by Christopher Columbus's son attempted to free themselves and take over the land. This was the earliest recorded slave uprising in the Americas. ⬇️🧵 www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/en...

On Christmas Eve 1855 enslaved teenagers from Loudon County, Virginia fended off slave patrollers as they made their escape to freedom in Philadelphia. This image, “A Bold Stroke for Freedom,” is housed in the Library of Congress.

"There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard." Madam C. J. Walker, born on this day in 1867

“She began working as a park ranger at age 85, educating visitors about the women and people of color who served on the home front in World War II, herself among them.” Betty Reid Soskin, Nation’s Oldest Park Ranger, Dies at 104 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

Josephine Washington, gifted writer & Frederick Douglass’ clerk, was born 1861 to Augustus Turpin & Maria Crump. “Augustus was the son of an enslaved African woman named Mary & Edwin Durock Turpin, who owned & later married her. He was a grandson of Mary Jefferson Turpin - aunt to Thomas Jefferson.”

“Let our fear of losing our children be more powerful than our fear of our next-door neighbor.” www.newsweek.com/2025/07/18/f...

Horace Pippin turned to painting to address the physical & psychic injuries he sustained as a WWI soldier as well as reflect on American culture & history. His Holy Mountain series endeavored to envision “peace in the land” of a troubled world. This is Pippin’s Holy Mountain III which he made 1945.

While researching a Revolutionary War ancestor, Jane Woolsey Gropp learned about the Marbleheaders, a diverse group of fishermen & sailors, inc free African Americans & Native Americans, from Marblehead, MA, who played a crucial role in key military operations. thebedfordcitizen.org/event/a-jour...

Coralie Cook, descendent of the Hemings family enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, was born enslaved in 1861. She was an advocate for women’s rights & a professor who served on DC's board of ed, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women, & president of the Washington Artists Association.

"If your Constitution does not guarantee freedom for all, it is not a Constitution I can ascribe to. If your flag is stained by the blood of a brother held in bondage, I repudiate it in the name of God." William Lloyd Garrison

“over the 400 years since the first English ships arrived in Barbados, empire engineered a system of wealth extraction that shapes the tourism economies of today” HT @hofrench.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

Per the Library of Virginia: "Jane Minor was emancipated as a result of her healing skills during an epidemic in Petersburg in 1825. Her medical skills allowed her to prosper & over the course of 2 decades she purchased & emancipated at least 15 women & children." She freed Phebe Jackson here:

Dr. Harriet Rice, the 1st Black woman alum of Wellesley College, earned her MD in 1891. She worked with Jane Addams at Hull House & was a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center. During WWI she served in France as a military physician & was awarded a medal by the French government.

On December 7, 1942, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller manned anti-aircraft artillery & tended to the wounded under heavy fire; he was awarded the Navy Cross, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Navy at the time. This American hero of Pearl Harbor was killed in action 2 years later.

Navy sailor Neil Daniel Frye was killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was buried with full military honors. His decorations include the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, American Defense Service Medal & the Bronze Star Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. www.fayobserver.com/story/news/m...

Black US soldiers were the first park rangers in our country's national parks. www.nps.gov/chyo/learn/h...

US Army Colonel Charles Young became a National Park Superintendent in 1903. After leading troops with distinction abroad, he supervised the build & protection of Yosemite & Sequoia national parks. Young's father had fled enslavement to join the US Army & fight for freedom during the Civil War.

“After five years in Paris, Hemings brought his new skills back to the US and served as Jefferson's head chef at Monticello, as well as in New York and Philadelphia, until he was able to negotiate his own freedom in 1796.” www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

William Freehling shows that 200,000 white Southerners in border states joined the Union. As did 100,000 white Southerners from Confederate states, incl future US pres Andrew Johnson. Majority of the 200,000 Black Americans who served were southern. Anti-Confederate Southerners preserved the nation.

"Regardless of their personal loyalties, every enslaved person, including Hawley, fought for the literal promise of liberty"

NYC native Ira Aldridge “travelled farther, was seen by more people in more nations, & won a greater number of prestigious honors, decorations & awards than any other actor in the 19th century” When a Black family in Baltimore was captured after fleeing slavery, he sent funds to buy their freedom.

James Hewlett, Shakespearian actor & principal performer in NYC’s African Grove Theater, a Black theater company founded by playwright William Brown in the 1820s. His Drama of King Shotaway, based on the historic 1796 anti-colonial resistance in St. Vincent, played to audiences in Greenwich Village.

Great book about New York theater manager William Brown who celebrated the multicultural realities of the 1820s US by cultivating theaters with mixed race performers & audiences. The book title is from a sign that Brown posted in response to rioters who endeavored to destroy his American Theater.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” —James Baldwin

"Think in terms of images and words. They can be mighty powerful when they are fitted together properly." Gordon Parks, born on this day in 1912

Gertrude Mossell (c. 1890 with their daughters) she was a journalist, educator, & the partner of Dr. Mossell. Her great grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, served with Washington’s troops during the American Revolution & helped found Philadelphia’s Free African Society. Her sister was Paul Robeson’s mother.

Dr. Nathan Mossell, whose great-great-grandfather survived the Middle Passage, was a highly accomplished surgeon who founded a hospital in Philadelphia in 1895. archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/pen...

Sarah & Benjamin Tanner met at Avery College. He became a minister & educator who edited the largest Black-owned US newspaper in 1868. Henry Ossawa Tanner, standing behind his father, was an award-winning painter. Halle (seated left of her father) was the 1st woman to pass the AL state medical exam.

I knew of Elizabeth Jennings Graham because @prisonculture.bsky.social took us here ⤵️ during one of her walking tours. It's near where she was thrown off the streetcar. Miriam Sicherman's class of 3rd- and 4th-grade students had the idea for the street sign: www.miriamsicherman.com/elizabeth-je...

In 1855 Elizabeth Jennings Graham brought a suit that initiated the desegregation of NYC transit. Raised by politically active parents (her was mother formerly enslaved, her entrepreneur father was awarded a patent in 1821) Ms. Graham was a teacher, organist, & kindergarten founder.