African American History - Historical Men & Women

African American History> Important Figures> Martin Luther King

The Avalon Project : African-Americans - Biography, Autobiography and History
Includes texts from Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.
- The Lilliam Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

Composers of African Descent
" The 15 new composers include Africans, African Americans and African Europeans. A brief discography gives examples of their classical recordings."
By William J. Zick

• Edmond Dede (1827-1903)
  "The life and music of Edmond Dede, an African American composer, violinist and conductor of the 'Creole Romantic' school. White racial hostilityin his native New Orleans ledDede to study in Paris andspend his lengthy career in Bordeaux as a reluctant but very successful expatriate."
• Robert Nathianiel Dett (1882-1943)
  African American Composer, Pianist & Professor

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
"...Congress consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964. The bulk of the collection consists of portrait photographs of celebrities, including many figures from the Harlem Renaissance. A much smaller portion of the collection is an assortment of American landscapes.
- American Memory, Library of Congress

The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences
"Profiled here are African American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering."
- Louisiana State University Libraries

Kansas City Public Library - The John Ramos Collection
"...is a discrete collection of books, pamphlets, journal articles and vertical file materials that relate the African-American experience as a whole in America

• Historical African-American Autographs
  "...featuring a set of autographs from prominent 20th-century African-American figures. Includes associated links to Web and Library materials."

Legends of Tuskegee: Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and the Tuskegee Airmen
"Tuskegee is more than a town located in Macon County, Alabama. It is an idea and an ideal. It was a bold experiment and a site of major African-American achievements for over 100 years."
- National Park Service Exhibit

Profiles of Some Important 19th Century African Americans
Part of the Internet African American History Challenge

Mary McLeod Bethune

Florida Memory Project
Florida State Archives

• Mary McLeod Bethune
  "...founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls, now Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune was active in the fight against racism and served as an unofficial advisor to President Roosevelt...The records include photographs, letters and drafts of sections of the biography."

Charlotte Hawkins Brown
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum
At Historic Palmer Memorial Institute
"Full history of famous African American educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown, and her pioneering school for African Americans."

Fredrick Douglass

The Fredrick Douglas Papers at the Library of Congress
"...presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. The first release of the Douglass Papers, from the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division, contains approximately 2,000 items (16,000 images) relating to Douglass's life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

The Fredrick Douglass Institute
West Chester University

George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
Research Links
A collection of biographical resources.
By Doll Hargrove

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Avalon Project : African-Americans - Biography, Autobiography and History
Includes texts from Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.
- The Lilliam Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

Duke Ellington - See also Jazz
Duke Ellington's Washington
Sections include: Noted Black Washingtonians ; Duke Ellington ; Virtual Tour of Shaw ; Interviews ; Transcript ; Resources "Uptown Interactive" ; DC History ; The Music Scene ; The Documentary ; Urban Renaissance
PBS Online

Ralph Ellison

American Masters - Ralph Ellison : An American Journey
Section include: Feature Essay ; Career Timeline ; Filmmaker Interview ; Additional Footage

• Educational Resources - Lesson - Ralph Ellison (Grades 11-12)

Billie Holiday

PBS - Independent Lens - Strange Fruit
Web companion to the TV broadcast of the independent film by Joel Katz.
"STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song 'Strange Fruit' is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South...The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter."

Martin Luther King, Jr. - see our separate MLK page.

Zora Neale Hurston

Library of Congress - American Memory

• The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress
  "...present a selection of ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and folklorist. Deposited in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997."

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs Runaway Notice
1835

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself
By Linda Brent [Harriet Jacobs], 1741

Letter from Harriet Jacobs to Ednah Dow Cheney, 1747
From Africans in America, PBS-Online

Jack Johnson
PBS - Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Companion website to the January 2005 film by Ken Burns.
"Jack Johnson ó the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World, whose dominance over his white opponents spurred furious debates and race riots in the early 20th century..."
Sections include: About the Film ; Rebel of the Progressive Era ; Sparring ; The Fight of the Century ; Knockout ; Ghost in the House ; For Teachers [study guide for high school students].

Percy Julian

PBS NOVA - Forgotten Genius
Companion website to the February 2007 TV broadcast. Watch episode online. Includes Teacher's Guide and Library Resource Kit.
"Against all odds, African-American chemist Percy Julian became one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century...is a fascinating and largely unknown story of scientific triumph and racial inequality. It covers the extraordinary life journey of Percy Julian, one of the great chemists of the 20th century."

Jacob Lawrence

Remembering Jacob Lawrence
"Two renowned American artists, Jacob Lawrence and George Segal, died last Friday night. We begin a two-part remembrance tonight. First, Jacob Lawrence, considered one of the century's great American painters. Here's a report and interview by former NewsHour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault that was broadcast in 1995."
- PBS Online NewsHour, June 11, 2000

The Phillips Collection
"America's first museum of modern art"

• Jacob Lawrence Over The Line
  Sections include: Beginnings ; The Young Artists ; Over The Line ; Teachings Resources ; Children's Art.

Whitney Museum of American Art

• Jacob Lawrence: Exploring Stories
  "...This website is for families, teachers, students, and anyone else who is interested in exploring Jacob Lawrenceís work, his themes, and his approach to visual storytelling...Here you'll find some of Lawrenceís paintings, information, learning resources, and fun activities..."

Rosa Parks

Troy University - Rosa Parks Library and Museum

Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson on the Web
Sections include: 1998 Centennial ; Music ; Princeton, NJ ; Biography ; Photographs & Portraits ; Sports ; The Robeson Legacy ; Film & Theater ; Political Activism ; Resource Lists.
-Princeton Public Library

Jackie Robinson

By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1740s - 1960s - (dead link)
"The special presentation called Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson, 1740s-1960s is a time line in five sections. It draws on approximately thirty items--manuscripts, books, photographs, and ephemera--from many parts of the Library...The special presentation called "Early Baseball Pictures, 1740s-1920s" features 34 intriguing photographs and prints..."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

The Afro American Newspaper
Online version of the weekly newspaper from Baltimore.

• History
  Sections include: Black Resistance...Slavery in the U.S. ; The Tuskegee Airmen ; Jackie Robinson ; The Black Panther Party ; Black or White ; The Million Man March ; The Scottsboro Boys ; This is Our War.

Dred Scott

The Dred Scott Case
"Arguments about slavery in the print and in public debate had a direct impact on the Scotts and the people who surrounded them. The records contained in this exhibit document the Scotts' early struggle to gain their freedom through litigation and are the only extant record of this significant case as it was heard in the St. Louis Circuit Court ... The 85 documents in the Dred Scott collection are presented here as arranged by the Missouri State Archives..."
Washington University Libraries, St. Louis

Dox Thrash (1893-1965)

Philadelphia Museum of Art

• Dox Thrash: Revealed
  The Life and Times of Dox Thrash
  "Live Events: Illustrated by Photographs and the Artists Work"

Malcolm X

The Official Website of Malcolm X

The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University
"...a multimedia version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a dynamic study tool which features interactive visual presentations of Malcolm Xís life and times through the userís exploration of archival documents, film, and audio recordings, and oral history interviews with Malcolm Xís associates and historians of the period."

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Booker T. Washington National Monument

Booker T. Washington Papers Online
"...is a completely free and searchable web site designed to provide researchers worldwide with full access to the thousands of pages comprising this 14-volume printed work, originally published by the University of Illinois Press.
-The History Cooperative

Legends of Tuskegee: Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and the Tuskegee Airmen
"Tuskegee is more than a town located in Macon County, Alabama. It is an idea and an ideal. It was a bold experiment and a site of major African-American achievements for over 100 years."
- National Park Service Exhibit

Up from Slavery
by Booker T. Washington, 1901.
Online version by Bartleby.com
__________

From Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization (etext)
By Emmett J. Scott (Emmett Jay), 1873-1957, and Stowe, Lyman Beecher, 1880-1963.
Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1916
From Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Muddy Waters

Muddy "Mississippi" Waters
The Official Muddy Waters Website
Sections include: Biography ; Muddy Art ; Sound Bytes ; Products ; Song List ; Mud's Kitchen ; Awards ; Past Tour Dates ; Muddy Media.

PBS - American Masters - Muddy Waters (April 2003)
Sections include: Feature Essay ; Career Timeline ; Additional Footage ; Filmmaker Interview ; For Teachers.

• For Teacher's - Following Muddy's Trail (Grades 9-12)

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