Curated Video
Queen Nzinga part 1: Difficult Birth and Early Life
This video tells the story of Queen Nzinga Mbandi, a renowned queen from Southwest Africa who was known for her intelligence, political aptitude, and military skills. The video explores her background, including her difficult birth and...
Step Back History
I Ruin Apartheid by Making it Political
Apartheid remains one of the darker chapters of the human experience. Today, our voyage is into this horribly oppressive set of laws designed to maintain white supremacy in South Africa. What was it? Who supported and opposed it? And how...
PBS
Is This Ratchet Or Runway? Fashion trends to Ghetto Fabulous
What makes a fashion trend go from lowbrow to high class? How does the person wearing the style change its perception? And whose taste gets to be respected? Hang on to your boxer braids for this one, from the ghetto to ghetto fabulous...
Step Back History
The Poor People's Campaign
Martin Luther King Jr was a more radical figure whose history has been whitewashed. This is the story of his last days fighting for economic justice in the Poor People's Campaign.
Curated Video
Harriet Tubman: Civil War Spy
She’s known as a savior of the enslaved – but few know that during the American Civil War, Harriet Tubman was an exceptionally capable Union Army spy.
Science360
I am Black History - Erica Robinson
The National Science Foundation recognizes our very own Black History makers - advancing science and impacting their communities in outstanding ways!
Weird History
When the Seminole Indians Aligned With Escaped Slaves
The Black Seminoles were a group of people that history, for the most part, forgot about. Their alliance with the native Seminole tribes resulted in a unique relationship that had never been seen before, and that changed the course of...
Curated Video
The African Origin of Mathematics
Perhaps the oldest known mathematical device in the history of mankind was created in Central Africa and could potentially be the originator of Egyptian and Greek mathematics.
Curated Video
Alice Coachman: the First Black Woman to Win an Olympic Gold Medal
Alice Coachman Davis was an athlete who specialized in the high jump. She was the first black woman selected for the U.S. Olympic team and went on to become the first black woman of any nationality to win a gold medal at the Olympics...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Ian Manuel - Poetry Behind Bars
When Ian Manuel was 13 years old, he was directed by some older juvenile boys to participate in an armed robbery. During the botched robbery attempt, a Tampa, FL woman (Debbie Baigrie) suffered a nonfatal gunshot wound. When Ian later...
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...
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...