Curated Video
Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal
In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt's progressive legislation, dubbed the Square Deal, aimed to limit the power of corporations, protect consumers, and conserve natural resources. The Square Deal drastically changed the...
Curated Video
Susan La Flesche Picotte: The First Female Native American Doctor
At a time when many Native Americans were refused healthcare by racist White doctors, Susan La Flesche Picotte overcame gender discrimination to become the first Indigenous woman in U.S. history to earn a medical degree.
Curated Video
Susan Clark Holley: Breaking Barriers in Education
Facing racial barriers in 19th-century Iowa, Susan Clark Holley’s legal battle pioneered school desegregation, laying early groundwork for the monumental Brown v. Board of Education case.
Curated Video
Sandra Cisneros
A trailblazer in more ways than one, Sandra Cisneros was the first Mexican-American woman to be published by a mainstream publisher. Her work brought Hispanic culture to a wider audience of readers.
Curated Video
Richard Wright
At a time when Jim Crow laws made racial segregation legal across much of the United States, author Richard Wright gave voice to a struggle – as the first African American author to achieve widespread critical and commercial success.
Curated Video
Ona Judge: Self-Emancipated from the Presidential Mansion
Born into slavery on George Washington's plantation, Ona Judge's daring escape highlights the ideological contradictions of personal liberty in early America.
Curated Video
Native American Boarding Schools: Forced Separation of Families
For over a hundred years, the U.S. government used education as a tool to assimilate Native American children into American society - by systematically erasing their history, culture, and language.
Curated Video
Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Antislavery Activist
The first Black newspaper editor in the history of the United States, Mary Ann Shadd Cary spoke out to champion the cause of freedom in an era when the voices of African Americans were rarely heard.
Curated Video
Juneteenth Explained
Also known as Freedom Day and Emancipation Day, Juneteenth celebrates the resilience of Black Americans and the historic achievement of abolition itself. But how did it come about?
Curated Video
Josephine Baker: Actor, Singer, Spy
Actor and singer Josephine Baker spent her life resisting racial discrimination at home and abroad. During World War II, she bravely used her fame to fight back against the Nazis.
Curated Video
Injustice: Roger Taney
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney's unjust majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford shockingly declared Black individuals weren't citizens, solidifying slavery's grip and pushing the nation closer to Civil War.
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Henrietta Lacks' Revolutionary HeLa Cells
The astonishing story of Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells, taken without consent, revolutionized medical research but also exposed ethical dilemmas, leading to crucial changes in consent laws to protect patients' rights in the scientific...
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Harriet R. Gold Boudinot: Interracial Marriage in Early America
The interracial marriage of Harriet R. Gold and Elias Boudinot transcended racial taboos of the 1800s, leaving a lasting impact on both the Cherokee and Cornwall communities.
Curated Video
Forced Removal to Mexico: Repatriation Drives
During the Great Depression, the U.S. government detained and deported almost 2 million Mexican American citizens and people of Mexican descent, in an initiative known as the Repatriation Drives.
Curated Video
Election of 1876: Testing the Constitution
The Presidential Election of 1876 was considered a foregone conclusion, with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden sure to defeat Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, but disputed Southern electoral votes led to an outcome that nobody predicted.
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Election of 1860: A Nation, Torn
The Presidential Election of 1860 proved the most divisive in U.S. history, with the election of Abraham Lincoln triggering the secession of Southern states. But how did it play out at the polls?
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Courage: Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Eckford's lone walk to Little Rock High School, amid fierce protests, became a symbol of courage in the fight against racial segregation.
Curated Video
Colson Whitehead
The first author to win the Pulitzer Prize for two consecutive novels, Colson Whitehead is one of the United States’ most versatile writers.
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Angela Davis
Despite being on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list, Angela Davis went on to become an international symbol of resistance against social injustice.
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Alice Walker
As the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Alice Walker helped to bring the Black experience to readers across the globe. A true trailblazer, her work continues to entertain and enlighten.
Curated Video
Afong Moy
Afong Moy is believed to be the first Chinese woman to step foot on U.S. soil and her presence sparked an American fascination with Chinese culture, but her experience in the United States was far from welcoming.
PBS
The History of Reparations
In 2014, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article for The Atlantic “The Case for Reparations” went viral. Tracing everything from the racial terror of slavery to the rampant housing discrimination of the 20th century, Coates made the case for...
PBS
Evolution of Law Enforcement
With ongoing protests across the United States and the globe against law enforcement violence and extrajudicial killings of people in Black, brown, and impoverished communities, the world is contemplating the place of police in our...
PBS
Health Disparities in the Black Community: Past & Present
You're probably aware that the United States healthcare system is letting down many Black Americans. Today, Danielle looks at the historic reasons for distrust of medical establishment in the Black community as well as why these huge...