Curated Video
Should you go to an HBCU?
HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) have the prestigious honor of always being committed to the mission of educating everyone regardless of race, but Evelyn and Hallease both attended a PWI (Predominately White...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Leslie T. Fenwick - National Museum of African American History and Culture
Leslie T. Fenwick, PhD, is a nationally-known education policy and leadership studies scholar who served as Dean of the Howard University School of Education for nearly a decade. A former Visiting Scholar and Visiting Fellow at Harvard...
60 Second Histories
Slave Journey to the Coast
An African slave recounts how he was shackled and had to walk for two weeks till they reached a stone fort on the coast
60 Second Histories
Slave Market
An African slave describes the slave market in the Americas and how slaves were prepared for sale to make them look healthier and more attractive to prospective buyers
Curated Video
Experience the Vibrant Celebration of Junkanoo in the Bahamas
The Junkanoo parade starts on Boxing Day (December 26th) in the Bahamas. The colorful festival celebrates life and freedom and is thought to be named after John Canoe, a West African prince who was enslaved in the Bahamas. Learn more...
Curated Video
Facts You May Not Have Heard About Black History
Did you know that the practice of inoculation was brought to the West by enslaved Africans? Was the Lone Ranger a Black man? This video is a series of fast facts you may not know about many genres of Black history.
Curated Video
Learning Alone: One Man's Fight for a Fair Education
George W. McLaurin provided the Oklahoma civil rights case that damaged the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” legal position beyond repair. He held a master’s degree from the University of Kansas and taught at the all-black...
Curated Video
Cathay Williams: the First Black Woman to Enlist in the United States Army
Cathay Williams was an African-American soldier, recognized as the first Black woman to enlist, and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army posing as a man during the American Indian Wars. Notably, she was the only...
Curated Video
Dr. Eliza Ann Grier: the First African American Woman Licensed to Practice Medicine in Georgia
Dr. Eliza Ann Grier believed she could be most helpful to other African Americans by getting medical education. Despite being an emancipated slave, she enrolled in a leading medical school. Finally, in 1897, she became the first African...
Curated Video
Black sounding' names and their surprising history
What's in a name? Sometimes it's just our imagination, and other times it's an attempt at a political statement. Black names have been satirized and stereotyped for a long time, but they have a unique and downright surprising history....
Curated Video
Bill Richmond: the First Black Sports Star
Bill Richmond was born into slavery on Staten Island, New York, which was then an outpost for the British colonies. When Richmond was 14, a British soldier named Hugh Percy arranged his freedom and brought him to England where Richmond...
Curated Video
The Little Rock Nine: Mobs, Violence, and School Closings
Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine Black students who enrolled in Dunbar high school in Arkansas in 1957, reflects on the mob and violence that met her on the first day of that school year. It would take a few days and the interference...
Curated Video
Septima Poinsette Clark
Septima Poinsette Clark was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African...
Curated Video
Vivien Thomas: the Man who Helped Invent the Heart Surgery
Vivien Thomas was born on August 29, 1910, in New Iberia, Louisiana. He was the son of a carpenter and grandson of an enslaved man. He was a skilled carpenter who saved for seven years to pay for his education but lost it all during the...
Curated Video
The Story of Lena Baker
Lena Baker a Black mother of three, was an African American maid in Cuthbert, Georgia, United States. She was convicted for the fatal shooting of E. B. Knight, a white-Georgia mill operator she was hired to care for after he broke his...
Curated Video
The Rarely Told Story of Joseph Bologne: Prodigy Swordsman & Violinist
Chevalier de Saint-Georges, born Joseph Bologne, was widely considered to be one of the most accomplished men in Europe during his lifetime, with a laundry list of talents, ranging from genius violinist to Europe’s greatest swordsman. He...
Curated Video
King Takyi: the Ghanian King Who Led a Slave Rebellion in Jamaica
Do you know the slave king Takyi? Takyi was a Fanti King from Gold Coast, now Ghana. Research shows he might have been the ruler of a settlement in Komenda or Koromantse in the Central region of Ghana. History revealed he was a...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Christel Temple - Teachers Make a Difference
Christel Temple is Chair, Associate Professor of Africana Studies Associate and Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. She earned a BA, History, The College of William and Mary; MA, African American Studies, University of...
Curated Video
Wendell Smith
Born on the 23rd of march, 1914. He was an African American sportswriter and editor. Credited with the recommendation of Jackie Robinson to Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He died of Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 58 on the 26th...
Curated Video
George Stinny
Born on the 21st October 1929, in South Carolina, United States, George was a 14 year old African American boy who was convicted of murdering two white girls on the 22nd March 1944. On the day prior to their death, they had ridden past...
Curated Video
Festivals of the World: NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL
The Notting Hill Carnival is a vibrant and lively event that takes place in London on the August bank holiday. It was founded to overcome racial tensions and has grown into a celebration of cultural diversity. With colorful costumes,...
Curated Video
The Day A Bunch of Kids Beat The Chief of Police
The Birmingham Children’s crusade of 1963, or the Children's March, was a march of school students aged 7 to 18 in Birmingham, Alabama that started on May 2, 1963. The purpose of the March was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about...
Curated Video
Marian Croak: the Inventor of the VoIP Technology
Marian R. Croak is a prolific inventor in the voice and data communication field. Born in 1955 in Pennsylvania and raised in New York City, she is the highest female patent holder at AT&T with 127 patents and counting. Her career...
Curated Video
The Sharpeville Massacre
The event occurred on March 21, 1960, in the Black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa. In March 1960, Pan African Congress (PAC) decided to organize a peaceful protest in Sharpeville. On March 21, thousands of...