Who was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award in a leading role?
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My family has lived all of our lives as “white” people, but recently we were pretty surprised to learn through DNA…
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Malcolm X is being remembered this week across black America on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. It is a…
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This recently auctioned letter, dated March 9, 1950, from Malcolm X was written to “My Dearly Beloved Brother…
Saturday will mark a half-century since the untimely death of one of the most important intellectuals, organizers…
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This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive…
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There is a painting from 1920 of New Orleans Vodou priestess Marie Laveaux. The solemn woman in the portrait gazes,…
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Who was the first African American to drive a U.S. mail coach?
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I wonder if my ancestors went the wrong way in their search for land sometime between the mid-1840s and early 1850s.…
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This year is the 100th anniversary of what is now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and…
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Editor’s note: During Black History Month the focus is usually on historical figures who loomed larger than life,…
Editor’s note: For Black History Month, The Root is spotlighting less famous figures from the African American…
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This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive…
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Editor’s note: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and scholar Eric Foner has just published Gateway to Freedom: The…
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Who was the first African-American flight attendant for a U.S. airline?
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My third-great-grandfather Jacob Sampson (1786-1870) of Goochland County, Va., owned a 500-acre plantation in…
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Editor’s note: For Black History Month, The Root is spotlighting less famous figures from the African American…
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This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive…
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Editor’s note: They Did It First is The Root’s new weekly series on trailblazing people and events in the history of…
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For this week’s column, we decided to address an option for going forward when you have taken your family tree…
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