The Unhidden Minute

Charles Young , born in 1864 to enslaved parents in Kentucky, became the third Black American to graduate from West Point Military Academy in 1889. Throughout his military career, he faced discrimination but persevered, eventually becoming the highest-ranking Black American officer in the United States Army at the time. In 1903 while serving as a Captain of an all-Black regiment of the 9th U.S. Ca...

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 stands as one of the most devastating episodes of racial violence in American history. Occurring in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a prosperous African American community known as " Black Wall Street ," the massacre was sparked by an allegation of a black man assaulting a white woman. In the ensuing chaos, a white mob, deputized by local authorities, loo...

The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant cultural and intellectual movement that emerged in the 1920s within the Black American community in the burrow of Harlem in New York City. This period marked a profound shift in the cultural landscape, as Black American artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals flourished, challenging societal norms and stereotypes while celebrating their heritage. Literat...

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was one of the most renowned Black American units to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Organized in 1863, the regiment was composed primarily of free Black men from Massachusetts and other Northern states. Under the leadership of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw , the 54th Massachusetts became a symbol of Black American valor and determination in the f...

Josephine Baker , an iconic entertainer, and civil rights activist, played a lesser known yet vital role during World War II. Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker faced racial discrimination in her early life but found success and fame in Paris. During World War II, she served as a spy for the French military intelligence agency, the Deuxième Bureau . Her status as a performer granted her ac...

Henry Johnson was a Black American soldier who served with distinction during World War I. Born in 1892 in North Carolina, Johnson was assigned to the 369th Infantry Regiment , also known as the Harlem Hellfighters . His unit was one of the few Black American combat divisions in the U.S. Army at the time. On May 14, 1918, while on sentry duty in the Argonne Forest in France, Johnson and his fellow...

Mary McLeod Bethune was a prominent Black American educator, civil rights leader, and political activist. Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents in South Carolina, Bethune overcame poverty and discrimination to become one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Driven by her belief in the power of education to uplift communities, Bethune founded the Daytona Educational and Industri...

During World War I the 369th Infantry Regiment , was an Black American military unit known as the Harlem Hell Fighters . Established in 1913 as a National Guard unit based in New York City, the regiment was one of the few Black American units to serve in combat during the war due to racial segregation in the U.S. military. Led by Colonel William Hayward , the Harlem Hellfighters were deployed to F...

Eugene James Bullard (October 9, 1895 – October 12, 1961) , was the first black American military pilot. Born in Columbus Georgia, Bullard fled to Europe in 1912 shortly after the death of his mother and the attempted lynching of his father. If order to escape the horrors of the Jim Crow South, he made a life for himself overseas in France. He earned a living as prize fighter and a Vaudeville ente...

Sojourner Truth , born Isabella Baumfree in 1797, transcended the confines of an enslaved person to become an indomitable force in the abolitionist and women's rights movements of the 19th century. Escaping slavery in 1826, she embarked on a transformative journey, adopting the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 to reflect her mission as a teller of truth and an itinerant preacher. Known for her powerfu...

Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 - March 9,1955) was a Black American explorer who was the first person to stand on the North Pole. Born in 1866, Henson began is travels as cabin boy on a tall sailing ship at the age of 12. He became the personal assistant to Captain Robert Peary to begin an exploration of Nicaragua in the hopes of finding a potential route for what ultimately became the P...

George Washington Carver , born into slavery around 1864, was a prominent Black American scientist, educator, and inventor. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Carver dedicated his life to agricultural research and the betterment of Southern farmers. He rose to prominence at the Tuskegee Institute , where he taught and conducted groundbreaking research. Carver's work primarily focused...

In 1892 a man of mixed heritage named Homer Plessy , who identified as a person of color, refuse to abide to a Louisiana state law that mandated the segregation of railroad passenger cars. Siting the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of U.S. Constitution, Plessy took his case to court.  At trial his lawyers argued that judge  John Howard Ferguson  should dismiss the charges on the grou...

During the 1920s, Bessie Coleman (1892—1926) gained recognition as an aerial stunt pilot. An original barnstormer, she captivated audiences with aerobatic feats of daring at airshows across the American South. But, prior to achieving this, she faced the challenge of obtaining her pilot's license. As a Black woman no American aviation school was willing to instruct her. Determined, Coleman diligent...

Maggie Lena Walker (July 15, 1864 – December 15, 1934) was a Black American businesswoman and teacher. In 1903 she was the first Black woman to charter a bank and serve as its president in the United States. As a financial leader, Walker achieved successes by creating opportunities to make tangible improvements in the way of life for Black Americans. Disabled by paralysis and a user of a wheelchai...

Before the turn of the 20th Century, a group of 20 Black Soldiers in the United States Army were tasked with taking part in a unique experiment to see if the horse could be replaced by the bicycle. Known collectively as the Buffalo Soldier Bicycle Corps , this unit of the 25th infantry, stationed at Fort Missoula Montana, demonstrated its effectiveness during maneuvers and patrols, covering greate...

Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, the United States Congress formally approved the formation of six segregated regiments of Black soldiers in the U.S. Army. These regiments were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry . These regiments played a significant role in the western frontier, where they were tasked with various duties, including protecting sett...

The United States presidential election of 1876 was a pivotal moment in American history. The two major candidates were Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden . The election results were contested by allegations of fraud, disputed electoral votes, and political maneuvering. Though Tilden won the popular vote but both candidates claimed victory in several key states. The dispu...

Not long after the end of the Civil War, during the era of Reconstruction seven Black men were elected to the United States Congress. These senators and representatives were sent by their constituents to Washington D.C. between 1870 and 1871 to enact legislation on behalf a nation that now included 4.3 million newly emancipated formerly enslaved U.S. Citizens. Their names were Hiram Rhodes Revels...

Hiram R. Revels was a Black American politician and minister born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1827. Ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church he served a teacher of religion in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri and Kansas. Formally educated in theology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 1857 he became the minister of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore,...

Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) was a Black American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist. She is noted as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Though other women might have been the first, their wealth is not as well-documented. Born a free woman two years after the Civil War in Delta, Louisiana in 1867, Sarah Breedlove eme...

The Pullman Porters (Circa 1865- December 31, 1968) were a group of predominately Black men hired to work as servers on railroad sleeping cars. Shortly after the Civil War, the entrepreneur George Pullman recruited formerly enslaved to provide primary services to passengers on trains traveling across the United States. Called porters the Pullman Company employees carried baggage, shined shoes and...

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931)  was a Black American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement . She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP). Born into slavery in Holly Springs , Mississippi , Wells was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War ....

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts , a racially tolerant and integrated community William Edward Burghardt Du Bois  was a Black American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, writer and editor. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin he attended Harvard University, where he was the first Black American to earn a doctorate.  He became a professor of histo...

After achieving freedom at the end of the Civil War , Booker Taliaferro Washington became one of the most famous Black American leaders, authors, and educators in the country. He was of the last generation born into slavery and lived through the Reconstruction Era as the freedoms gained during the War were systematical replaced with a regime of extreme political violence, racism, and legal discrim...