Photography

Fear, rumor and white supremacist ideals clashed with an unprecedented labor action spawned an epic tragedy.

On November 23, 1887, white vigilantes gunned down unarmed black laborers and their families due to strikes on Louisiana sugar cane plantations. A future member of the U.S. House of Representatives was among the leaders of a mob that routed black men from houses and forced them to a stretch of railroad track, ordering them to run for their lives before gunning them down. According to a witness, the guns firing in the black neighborhoods sounded like a battle. Author and award-winning reporter John DeSantis uses correspondence, interviews and federal records to detail this harrowing true story.

Seen on the roadways of Charleston County and in museums and galleries worldwide, handmade sweetgrass baskets have been crafted in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, SC for more than 300 years.

An ancient African art, sweetgrass basket making utilizes sweetgrass, bullrush, pine needles, and palm leaves to create unique, handmade pieces. Traditionally, artisans use a piece of the rib bone of a cow and a pair of scissors as their only tools for construction. When English settlers founded Christ Church Parish in the late 1600s, they saw a place rich in natural beauty and ideal for harvesting rice, cotton, and indigo. Skilled agricultural laborers were needed, and consequently, South Carolina became the top importer of enslaved West Africans. Finding a landscape similar to their homeland, those who came kept many of their traditional practices. Today, the richness of the West African presence can be seen in Charleston's architecture, basketry, and ironworks.

From Nashville's earliest days as a pioneer town in Middle Tennessee, it would be nothing without its African American community.

Like many cities of the Antebellum South, Nashville was built by enslaved people, as African Americans built the first successful water system, maintained the streets, cultivated crops, and bred livestock. For years, Nashville was considered one of the wealthiest Southern cities, but after the Civil War, it struggled to regain that status while its newly freed Black citizens struggled to survive the South's Reconstruction and subsequent Jim Crow laws. As the Civil Rights era brought long-needed reforms, the Black community of Nashville has persevered through their determination, spiritual strength, and the unique leadership fostered by the visionary city they call home.

A fascinating history of Suffolk's heroic African-American community. A must-have for African-American and Virginia history enthusiasts.

After the Civil War, African-Americans throughout Suffolk and Nansemond County fought against injustice by demanding equality before the law, the right to vote, and equal access to schools, employment, and professions. Because of their tolerance and sense of fortitude, they were able to own land and businesses and to establish churches, schools, and social organizations that paved the way for generations to come.

Suffolkis a result of the many contributions made by countless pioneers in education, business, religion, social organizations, and community leadership. In this volume, Suffolk native and archivist Annette Montgomery shares timeless, evocative images and passages for all to enjoy.

Between 1914 and 1951, Black Bottom's black community emerged out of the need for black migrants to find a place for themselves.

Because of the stringent racism and discrimination in housing, blacks migrating from the South seeking employment in Detroit's burgeoning industrial metropolis were forced to live in this former European immigrant community. During World War I through World War II, Black Bottom became a social, cultural, and economic center of struggle and triumph, as well as a testament to the tradition of black self-help and community-building strategies that have been the benchmark of black struggle. Black Bottom also had its troubles and woes. However, it would be these types of challenges confronting Black Bottom residents that would become part of the cohesive element that turned Black Bottom into a strong and viable community.

See why and how Pine Bluff/Jefferson County has been one of the Arkansas Delta's most culturally-rich areas since its inception in 1829.

Serving as a haven for runaway slaves during the late years of the Civil War, the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County area attracted droves of African-Americans throughout the Delta and south Arkansas. Brimming with talent and expectations, they and their descendants traveled a road full of extremes. Although they endured what appears to have been the largest mass lynching in United State history in 1866, they also attained one of the largest per-capita concentrations of black wealth in the entire South by 1900.

As the hands that labored in the area's boundless cotton fields and sawmills joined with the hands that held books at the state's only historically black public college, astonishing accomplishments were churned out in every imaginable field. Naturally, Pine Bluff/Jefferson County's Delta roots made its blues, jazz, and gospel contributions a source of pride, with native or area-affiliated artists receiving multiple Grammy awards and nominations, as well as other distinctions.

Known as the birthplace of black capitalism, Richmond had one of the largest black business districts in America at the turn of the 20th century.

Richmond, Virginia boasts a proud legacy of achievement among its African-American residents. Medical pioneers, civil rights activists, education leaders, and enterprising bankers are listed among the city's African-American sons and daughters. As individuals these men and women made their mark not only on Richmond's, but also the nation's, history. As a community, they have endured centuries of change and worked together for the common good. In their determined faces and in unforgettable scenes of the past, we celebrate and pay tribute to their history.

Join Author and historian Herman Skip Mason Jr. in this unique look at the rich history of the African-American community of East Point, Georgia.

An industrious, spiritual, and neighborly people, the African-American community of East Point, Georgia has a rich and enduring heritage, explored in this volume of vintage photographs. Notable landmarks such as South Fulton High School, Lige Sims Funeral Home, and Union Baptist Church-all long gone but not forgotten-are seen within these pages. The pioneering leaders who have contributed to the town's growth are highlighted as well, including the civic and social organizations they formed for the betterment of the community.

The Baltimore African-American community, with its well-known personalities and cultural contributions have made the town what it is today.

Throughout the years, the city of Baltimore has played host to many well-known figures, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and boxer Joe Louis; the city has been called home by Billie Holiday, Frederick Douglass, and Thurgood Marshall. But it is the local African-American community's members, working diligently to advance and empower themselves, who made history while they lived it.

Here is the black Chicago family album, of African Americans leaving the violent, racist South and ""goin' to Chicago"" to find the American Dream.

The story of black Chicago is so rich that few know it all. It began long before the city itself. Wells, the Eighth Regiment, Jesse Jackson, Oprah, and much more . . . including a guy named Obama. ""The first white man here was a black man,"" Potowatami natives reportedly said about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the brown-skinned man recognized as Chicago's first non-Indian settler. It's all here: from the site of DuSable's cabin--now smack-dab in the middle of Chicago's Magnificent Mile--to images of famous and infamous residents like boxers Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Louis. Here are leaders and cultural touchstones like Jesse Binga's bank, Robert S. Abbott's Chicago Defender, legendary filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, Ida B. Here is the black Chicago family album, of folks who made and never made the headlines, and pictures and stories of kinship and fellowship of African Americans leaving the violent, racist South and ""goin' to Chicago"" to find their piece of the American Dream. Chicago has been called the ""Second City,"" but black Chicago is second to none.

African Americans have lived in Boyle County, Kentucky, since the first settlement of the area in 1775. Mostly enslaved, by the Civil War, the county had one of the largest population of free Blacks in the area with the exception of Jefferson and Fayette Counties.

Their presence in Danville, the county seat, but also in population centers scattered throughout the county resulted in a deep and broad influence, much of which was lost in the early 1900s due to out-migration, deaths, and especially urban renewal between 1963 and 1975. Within Danville, the South Second Street area was the heart of the Black community. Restaurants, groceries, pool halls, barbershops, and beauty shops were the center of commerce from the 1890s until the 1970s. The Bate School also drew students from the outlying settlements that did not have high schools of their own. Today, the majority of the African American community continues to live in the city of Danville, with small pockets in Perryville and outlying areas of Boyle County.

Michael Thomas Hughes is a native of Boyle County and grew up in a segregated society. Michael J. Denis is a retired history teacher from Maine who moved to Boyle County and immediately fell in love with its history. The photographs in this book are mostly from the Danville Boyle County African American Historical Society Inc. collection (DBCAAHS), of which the authors are charter members.

In the early 1900s, an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit brought national renown to Tulsa's historic African American community, the Greenwood District.

This "Negro Wall Street" bustled with commercial activity. In 1921, jealously, land lust, and racism swelled in sectors of white Tulsa, and white rioters seized upon what some derogated as "Little Africa," leaving death and destruction in their wake. In an astounding resurrection, the community rose from the ashes of what was dubbed the Tulsa Race Riot with renewed vitality and splendor, peaking in the 1940s. In the succeeding decades, changed social and economic conditions sparked a prodigious downward spiral. Today's Greenwood District bears little resemblance to the black business mecca of yore. Instead, it has become part of something larger: an anchor to a rejuvenated arts, entertainment, educational, and cultural hub abutting downtown Tulsa.

The Tulsa experience is, in many ways, emblematic of others throughout the country. Through context-setting text and scores of captioned photographs, Images of America: Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District provides a basic foundation for those interested in the history of Tulsa, its African American community, and race relations in the modern era. Particularly for students, the book can be an entry point into what is a fascinating piece of American history and a gateway to discoveries about race, interpersonal relations, and shared humanity.

From the Siege of Petersburg to the struggle for civil rights, the history of Petersburg's African American community is detailed in this volume.

The city of Petersburg has distinguished itself as a special place for African American history. African Americans in Petersburg have overcome racial and political obstacles placed in their paths. The city was the site of one of the largest free black populations in the South leading up to the Civil War, and more black soldiers participated in the Siege of Petersburg than in any other Civil War engagement. The city is the location of First Baptist Church, the nation's oldest black church; has produced trailblazers in political life, including Virginia's first black mayor; and is the site of the famous Halifax Triangle, a thriving black business district. This diverse and poignant collection of photographs reveals a heritage rich in entrepreneurial spirit, devotion to church life, and unshakable courage in the struggle for civil rights.

Durham is a progressive New South city, one in which both the white and black populations have economically and culturally prospered over the past
century.

Durham's Hayti opens a door into the community's past that will allow you to walk down
familiar streets into a time that may seem distant, but is not that far removed, and to experience the full life of Hayti, from its churches and schools to its businesses and recreational pursuits.

Josiah Henson was born into slavery in La Plata, Maryland, and auctioned off as a child to pay his owner’s debt. After numerous trials and abuse, he earned the trust of his slaveholder by exhibiting intelligence and skill.

Daringly, he escaped to Canada with his wife and children. There he established a settlement and school for fugitives and repeatedly returned to the United States to help lead others to freedom along the Underground Railroad. He published a bestselling autobiography and became a popular preacher, lecturer, and international celebrity. He is immortalized as the inspiration for the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Author Edna M. Troiano recounts the amazing life of Maryland’s Josiah Henson and explores the sites devoted to his memory.

African Americans are greatly responsible for the impressive growth of Durham County in North Carolina, once known as the "Capital of the Black Bourgeoisie".

Durham County, North Carolina, once called the "Chicago of the South" and the "Capital of the Black Bourgeoisie," has long occupied an important place in the hearts and minds of those who called Durham County home. African Americans have played a vital role in the growth and development of the region over the years, from antebellum times to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era and in the present. The African American citizens of this historic Tar Heel county share an impressive story marked by determination, economic achievement, and resilience, and they have made a difference in all walks of life - educational, religious, civic, and commercial. This pictorial history reflects upon the rich and vibrant role that African Americans played in the area following emancipation. In its earliest stages, residents in such neighborhoods as Hayti, Hickstown, Crest Street, Pearsontown, the West End, the East End, and Walltown each created sturdy surviving communities that have shaped Durham.

Fascinating images of Cincinnati's African-American heritage.

Located on the banks of the Ohio River, Cincinnati was incorporated as a town in 1802. It became a major stop on the Underground Railroad and the gateway to the North for thousands of African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War. Cincinnati's African-American heritage is revealed here through images of African-American life in the community, churches, education, politics, entrepreneurship, civil rights, community benevolence and sports.

Filled with remarkable vintage photographs, Black America: Augusta, Georgia captures the essence of the African-American heritage in this historic Southern community.

The Garden City has produced a wide variety of intellectual and political pioneers, including a handful of educators who were instrumental in the pivotal Brown versus Board of Education case. Within the pages of this volume, their stories unfold.

The fourth president of the United States, James Madison, and his wife, Dolley, stamped their influence throughout Culpeper, Orange, Madison, and Rappahannock Counties with their plantation, Montpelier, and the enslaved men and women who supported them.

One of those enslaved men, Paul Jennings, whose sons later became Union soldiers during the Civil War, penned his memoir in 1865. The legacy of slavery undergirds the region, and its ravages are undeniably on the faces of minority residents. The Civil War also has a footprint throughout the region; one example is the Battle of Cedar Mountain where, more than 85 years later, the first regional high school for minority children was built. Celebrants include World War I veteran Newman Nighten Gibson, of the 370th Infantry; Nannie Helen Burroughs, who founded a school for African American girls in Washington, DC; and Edna Lewis, who became a master chef in New York in her 30s and later was honored by the US Postal Service on a forever stamp.

Join authors Vermelle Diamond Ely, Grace Hoey Drain, and Amy Rogers as they celebrate the rich history of the black community in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As in many cities in the early 20th-century South, the African-American citizens of Charlotte created their own society that mirrored the larger white community. Yet, black Charlotte was always self-sustaining, with its own schools, library, and businesses. Second Ward High School (1923-1969) was the area's first high school for blacks, and although the school and much of its surroundings have since been razed, the photo archive at the Second Ward Alumni House Museum helps keep alive the memories of the school and the entire black community.

Join author and educator Evelyn Scales Thompson, Ph.D. as she recounts the rich history of the black communities in and around Surry County, North Carolina

From slavery in the 1800s to freedom in the 1950s, Black America Series: Around Surry County traces the footsteps of African Americans through their transition from house servants and field hands to landowners, farmers, and successful small business proprietors. This detailed pictorial history celebrates and honors the strong faith, courage, and determination of the Surry County area's black community.

But it is not only this tragedy that has given Walton County a sense of identity. Indeed, other lesser-known events and accomplishments have contributed to its history. Whether boasting Atlanta's first black millionaire, a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, or a high school state football championship, Walton County has thrived both in and out of the national spotlight.

Nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River, this tiny peninsula county is home to one of the oldest African American communities, established when the first settlers arrived.

Located just south of Washington, D.C., Calvert County's African American community can be traced back to the county's beginning in the 17th century. From a time when Calvert County's black population grew to approximately 60 percent of the populace to its present-day residents representing the national average of 12 percent, Calvert's African Americans have attempted to hold on to many of their rich cultural traditions. Although their livelihoods as farmers and watermen have mostly ceased to exist these days, they continue to maintain strong ties to the land and an unwavering commitment to family values and community. The beautiful photographs and documents in this volume give a glimpse into the past of these proud people who continue to flourish while holding onto their distinctive identity.

Buckingham County, located in the heart of central Virginia, was established in 1761.

Since Buckingham County's formation, African Americans have contributed to the history and legacy of the county and were the majority of its population from 1810 to 1910. Former residents include Frank Moss, a Reconstruction lawmaker, and Carter Godwin Woodson, noted African-American educator and ""the Father of Black History.""

Nadine McIlwain and Geraldine Radcliffe reveal the celebrated legends, unsung heroes and historic firsts of African Americans residing in the Canton community.

From Canton’s earliest days, the black population has contributed to the city’s, and even the nation’s, prominence and prosperity. During World War II, nineteen-year-old Harold White joined the famed Tuskegee Airmen of the Ninety-Ninth Fighter Squadron. Only a few years later, Dorothy White persevered through prejudice to become Canton’s first black teacher, paving the way for a long line of dedicated teachers stretching to the present day. Renowned R&B group the O’Jays formed in Canton, and professional golfer Renee Powell is just one of many local athletes to reach the heights of her profession.

Long before it came to prominence as the model city of the New South, Atlanta was a hotbed of entertainment, business, and civic life for African Americans.

At the same time that Harlem was undergoing its acclaimed renaissance, Atlanta could boast of excellent colleges, a thriving social environment, and an entertainment scene that could rival those of much larger cities, eventually earning the title "the new Motown. '? From Auburn Avenue, the hub of the city's African American activity, a spirit of vibrant change and excitement radiated out to reach people across America, and draw them into the Hollywood of the South.

Enjoy three accessible walking tours and a bonus driving tour through places relevant to the rich and varied contributions of black Charlestonians.

Author Alphonso Brown, owner and operator of Gullah Tours, Inc., guides you through the history and lore. Visit Denmark Vesey's home, Catfish Row, the Old Slave Mart and the Market; learn about the sweetgrass basket makers, the Aiken-Rhett House slave quarters, black slave owners and blacksmith Philip Simmons. Brown's distinctive narration, combined with detailed maps and vibrant descriptions in native Gullah, make this a unique and enjoyable way to experience the Holy City.

A part of the Underground Railroad, read here of enslaved people and their stories of using Virginia's waterways to achieve freedom.

Enslaved Virginians sought freedom from the time they were first brought to the Jamestown colony in 1619. Acts of self-emancipation were aided by Virginia's waterways, which became part of the network of the Underground Railroad in the years before the Civil War. Watermen willing to help escaped slaves made eighteenth-century Norfolk a haven for freedom seekers. Famous nineteenth-century escapees like Shadrack Minkins and Henry Box Brown were aided by the Underground Railroad. Enslaved men like Henry Lewey, known as Bluebeard, aided freedom seekers as conductors, and black and white sympathizers acted as station masters. Historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander narrates the ways that enslaved people used Virginia's waterways to achieve humanity's dream of freedom.

June Bug's Grocery and the Cornfield Jook: A South Albany Oral History 

The vibrant South Georgia scene was pure Americana—a picturesque, old-fashioned grocery store next to a thriving jook joint in the heart of a South Albany African-American community. Originally more secluded, this nucleus of the neighborhood became a familiar sight to all Albany residents with the opening in the 1980s of a roadway that passed by the scene and across a new bridge over the nearby Flint River. The waters of the Flint proved to be much too near in 1994, when a catastrophic flood damaged beyond repair the grocery, jook, and hundreds of homes along the river.

Deeply touched by that enormous community loss, Mary Sterner Lawson used her own 1987 photographs to paint a watercolor of the once-flourishing South Albany scene. She never imagined how overwhelming the public response would be when the painting was exhibited in the main lobby of a busy local hospital in 1996. A veritable flood of reminiscences came her way—tales of childhood memories, community gatherings, friendships, brotherhood, families, prostitution, moonshine, and murder. Inspired by the community members who encouraged and aided her efforts, Lawson began recording the rich recollections. June Bug’s Grocery and the Cornfield Jook registers these voices of the community, the voices behind the painting.

Mary Sterner Lawson has taught humanities, literature, and composition at Albany State University since 1973. A natural extension of her longtime involvement with people, art, oral history, and community development, this volume will find a treasured place on Albany bookshelves and will be embraced by young and old, black and white, for generations to come.

African Americans of Fauquier details the perseverance the African American population of this town had through centuries of slavery and segregation.

Fauquier County, in Northern Virginia, was established in 1759. It was formed from Prince William County and was named for Virginia lieutenant governor Francis Fauquier. In 1790, there were 6,642 slaves in Fauquier County. By the eve of the Civil War, there were 10,455. From 1817 to 1865, the county was home to 845 free black people. The African American population declined at the end of Reconstruction, and by 1910, the white population was double that of blacks. The population imbalance continues today. Through centuries of slavery and segregation, Fauquier County's African American population survived, excelled, and prospered. This minority community established and supported numerous churches, schools, and businesses, as well as literary, political, and fraternal organizations that enhanced the quality of life for the entire county.

For generations, African Americans have enriched South Carolina's history, and the black families of Chesterfield County are no different.

During slavery, many African Americans in Chesterfield County were forced to provide domestic services and labor to build the towns in which they were never considered citizens. Many slaves mastered their crafts and used those skills to start a new life for their families after the Civil War. The images in African Americans of Chesterfield County are a testament to the contributions of black families who lived in the county from the 1800s to the mid-1900s, including entrepreneurs, educators, entertainers, farmers, ministers, and other individuals who assisted in making their county a better place to live. Most of the photographs were provided by private collections and archives in hope of preserving the black history of Chesterfield County.

From Elbert Colored High School to Blackwell Memorial Cultural Center, this book brings to life Elbert County's African American history.

Elbert County, the granite capital of the world, is nestled in the northeast corner of Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The educational and political journey of many African Americans in this county began at Elbert Colored High School. African Americans in Elbert County helped shape their community and their country through sheer determination and faith, in the face of slavery and laws biased against them.

This book captures the historical impacts of the African American community of Key West, Florida.

Known best as a vacation destination and home to artists, beach bums, and celebrities, Key West also boasts a proud African-American heritage that has its roots in the immigration of Caribbean settlers in the late 1800s. Bringing with them valuable skills, such as shipbuilding and other marine trades, and a strong sense of family and community, these immigrants and their descendants made significant contributions to the life of this unique island.

From the Civil War period, Hampton's African-American community has fashioned strong churches, institutions, businesses, and a major university where political and economic leaders have emerged.

The indefatigable spirit of a people once called ""contraband"" has a remarkable story illustrated by vintage photographs of Emancipation Oak, Freedom Fortress, Aberdeen Gardens, Little England Chapel, Bayshore Beach, and other historic sites.

Within these pages, discover little-known facts about the county's past residents, including Bukumbo, the young girl who was brought from Africa to Decatur to serve as a nurse, who quickly became a beloved member of the family and died only a short while later.

Learn about the great impact that the Clark and Oliver families had on Decatur, and view famous sections and landmarks of the county, including Lithonia, Ellenwood, Stone Mountain, Doraville, Tucker, Chamblee, Clarkston, Lynwood Park, Scottdale, and South DeKalb. Whether one is well acquainted with the county's rich heritage or a newcomer just becoming familiar with the people and places that make up the county's history, African-American Life in DeKalb County: 1823-1970 offers something for everyone.

Discover the contributions notable Black South Carolinians gave to bring encouragement and inspiration to their communities.

Did you know that eighty-eight years before Rosa Parks's historic protest, a courageous black woman in Charleston kept her seat on a segregated streetcar? What about Robert Smalls, who steered a Confederate warship into Union waters, freeing himself and some of his family, and later served in the South Carolina state legislature? In this inspiring collection, historian Damon L. Fordham relates story after story of notable black South Carolinians, many of whose contributions to the state's history have not been brought to light until now. From the letters of black soldiers during the Civil War to the impassioned pleas by students of ""Munro's School"" for their right to an education, these are the voices of protest and dissent, the voices of hope and encouragement and the voices of progress.

Take a trip down the Pennsylvania Avenue of years past, the heart of Baltimore's African-American community, when the streets vibrated with life and bass.

From 1930 to 1980, Baltimore was a key city to the success of Black entertainers, such as The Ink Spots, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and countless others, while The Avenue's hottest night spots such as the legendary Royal Theater, the Regent Theater, the Sphinx, and Club Casino bumped and jived until the early hours of morning. Along with the DJS and promoters who helped cultivate the city's musical talents, and the people who were just there to have a groovy time, African-American Entertainment in Baltimorecaptures the brilliance of the city's musical heritage.

A fascinating look at Ann Arbor's heroic African-American communitiy's journey and progress. A must-have for African-American and Michigan history enthusiasts.

The black community in the Ann Arbor area includes Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Second Baptist Church, Brown Chapel, theAnn Arbor Community Center, the old Jones School, and other well-remembered places.

The photographs representing this history follow the progress of the African American community from 1857, when the Rev. J. M. Gregory gathered together a small congregation at 504 High Street, to 1996, when Dr. Homer Neal assumed leadership of the University of Michigan as its interim president. This integral but little-known part of Ann Arbor area history is preserved in Another Ann Arbor.

Aptly named for the area's rich land, Lower Richland County encompasses approximately 360 miles in the heart of South Carolina's geographic center.

Discovered by Virginia settlers over 250 years ago, this fertile swath of land, with the Wateree River in the east and the Congaree River bordering the south, the area immediately attracted settlers eager to make their fortunes. They became wealthy planters and accumulated large land tracts, creating plantation systems that sustained the economy built on cotton crops and the labor of enslaved Africans. The area became some prosperous that the state legislature voted to move the state capital from Charleston in 1786 to the city that would become Columbia, South Carolina's capital to this day.

African Americans of Harrisburg documents the history of the African American community in this town.

Harrisburg served as a refuge and passageway for many African Americans fleeing the South via the Underground Railroad and moving north in search of freedom and a better way of life. African Americans of Harrisburg opens the door to this culturally diverse city of the wealthy, middle class, and poor with every possible race, religion, ethnicity, and lifestyle, which makes the fabric of the community so rich.