Lesser-Known Stories

In June and October of 2021, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. offered an array of health services to Mississippi residents in underserved communities.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bridget “Biddy” Mason helped to establish the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles.

Social worker, educator, and civil rights activist Vivian Carter Mason worked across racial lines to fight for equal education in Norfolk, Virginia.

Skydiving entrepreneur Howard “Skippy” Smith founded one of the first Black-owned and managed war production plants during World War II.

Literary author and editor Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins used the power of her pen to challenge society’s assumptions about Black women.

Homer G. Phillips Hospital served as a preeminent training facility for African American nurses and physicians during segregation.

Paul Jennings, enslaved by James and Dolly Madison, bought his freedom and published a personal memoir in 1865.

James McCune Smith, the first African American to hold a medical degree, fought against the false scientific claims of Black inferiority.

Jarena Lee experienced both the intense religiosity of the late 1700s and discrimination against women as she sought to become a preacher.

Nathan “Nearest” Green was the first known Black master distiller and creator of the blueprint behind Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey.

William and Ellen Craft, fugitives from slavery, devised a cunning plan that crossed race, gender, and class lines.

"Free" Frank McWorter, founded New Philadelphia, Illinois, the first known town to be founded and platted by an African American.

The mass suicide by captive Africans at Igbo Landing marks one of the most significant acts of resistance by enslaved people.