“A Red Record”
1895
Read an excerpt from Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s analysis of lynchings in the US at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments
1865, 1868, and 1870
Read the three Reconstruction Amendments.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
1900
Read the lyrics composed by James Weldon Johnson for what has become known as the Black National Anthem.
“Negroes, Leave the South!”
1920
Read an anonymous editorial calling on African Americans to move north, east, and west for safety and opportunities.
“We Wear the Mask”
1895
Read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, which poses a “mask” similar to Du Bois’s “veil.”
“If We Must Die”
1919
Read Claude McKay’s defiant poem, in response to violence against African Americans following World War I.
Citizen’s Savings and Trust Company Clock
1920–2013
View this artifact of a financial institution founded for the purposes of growing Black wealth.
Marcus Garvey in Harlem
1924
View another photograph of Garvey and an entourage, as captured by James Van Der Zee.
Establishing the Freedmen's Bureau
1865
Read the legislation creating the "bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands" amid the US Civil War.
Clarissa Reed Searches for Her Family
1883
Read a formerly enslaved woman’s plea for information about her lost parents and siblings.
Segregated Water Fountains
n.d.
See another example of how Jim Crow discrimination was made manifest in the built environment.
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