Black History Month

Martin Luther King Jr, an influential activist and Christian minister, led the Civil Rights Movement to fight for the rights of African Americans through the 1950s and 60s. He believed in non-violent protest and his work helped to tear down racial segregation and inspire generations of activists seeking Civil Rights and a more equal society.

The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, also known as Black Woodstock, was a watershed moment for Black culture in America - that history almost forgot.

This is a timeline of the life of Rosa Parks, a woman who made history with a single act of courage, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955, a time when the U.S. was racially segregated. Her bravery inspired tens of thousands of African Americans to protest by refusing to take the city’s buses in Montgomery, Alabama.

The year 2026 marks the bicentennial of a landmark year in US history – when the first European women and enslaved people arrived on North American soil, and US democracy was born.

For those enslaved, it was the perpetrator of countless horrors. So why did almost 200,000 African-Americans put their lives on the line to preserve the United States?

The stereotypical image of a White cowboy dominates popular culture – but in the 19th century, a quarter of ranch hands were Black!

As the First Lady of the Black Press, Ethel Payne wielded her first amendment right to ask the tough questions and hold those in power to account.

At a time when women and people of colour were all but excluded from the US government, one woman stormed the corridors of power and made them her own. This is the story of Barbara Jordan, the African American from the South who defied expectations by being selected to serve in Congress and who became one of the finest legislators in US history.

In 1963, school children from Birmingham, Alabama skipped class to demonstrate for racial equality. Met with police violence, they helped to bring about significant change. The Birmingham Children's Crusade, as it was known, has gone down in history as a turning point in the fight for Civil Rights.

It began as a protest against the Conscription Act of 1863 – but quickly descended into the bloodiest race riot in US history. So why did New York’s White working class kill at least 120 people during the New York Draft Riots?

This is the story of Ursula, Edith and Frances – three teenagers who Thomas Jefferson brought to the White House to train as his enslaved personal chefs.

Designed in 1972, the raised fist Afro Comb combines function with meaning to create a grooming tool that symbolises African-American history, culture and pride.

She was enslaved at birth – but became the first lady’s favorite dressmaker and the author of a sensational memoir that shocked the nation. So who was Elizabeth Keckly?

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.

Classical violinist Joseph Henry Douglass helped empower the Black community through music and education at a time when Southern lawmakers were pushing back against the progress of Reconstruction.

The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of African American culture and creativity that began in 1920s New York.

In 1960, four Black students staged a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest against racial segregation in the United States. The stools they sat on are the most visited artifacts at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

As a queer Black lawyer, poet and civil rights activist, Pauli Murray understood how our different identities can overlap to create multiple levels of discrimination. Her groundbreaking work in championing equality for all helped change America for the better.

Like much of American in the early 19th century, sports were segregated. But with the newly established Negro Baseball League, African American baseball players overcame racial segregation to claim the national pastime as their own.

This film is about the most important events of Watkins Harper’s early life, highlighting her early achievements as a writer.

Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains was the birthplace of Bluegrass Music and Bill Monroe who became the Godfather of the Bluegrass

You know the story of David and Goliath, right? Well, America has its own version. Only our hero is 15-year-old African-American, school girl Claudette Colvin and in 1955, she took on the State of Alabama for real. The original Rosa Parks!

James Hemings was an enslaved man and the first American to learn classic French cuisine. He helped popularise many of the dishes you know and love today.

How did a hardworking nurse from New York City invent the world's first home security system? When a burglar tried to break into her apartment in the 1960s, this kickass crimefighter went where no-one had gone before.

The Stono Rebellion of 1739 saw enslaved people rise up using coded sounds that sowed the seeds of jazz, blues and hip hop.

How did life change for enslaved people as the American Civil War raged around them?

1619 was a significant year in the history of America for better and for worse. In Jamestown, Virginia the first slaves were imported and sold. Meet Nikole Hannah-Jones; author of New York Times' "1619 Project" who will examine the impact of that year on American History, culture and development.

Sally Hemings was an enslaved woman who had several children with Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Her story of agency and eventual emancipation remains an inspiration.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the biggest protest America had ever seen. It culminated in Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. But the man who made it all possible, chief organiser Bayard Rustin, was almost written out of history not because he was black, but because he was gay.

In the 1960s, Black schoolgirl Ruby Bridges and White teacher Barbara Henry showed America the true power of racial integration in the classroom.

Thurgood Marshall, the most successful civil rights lawyer of all time and America’s first Supreme court Justice, was instrumental in the fight for equality in the United States.

When Black singer Marian Anderson was barred from performing in Washington by the Daughters of the Revolution – her Lincoln Memorial performance made her an icon of the Civil Rights Movement.

The story of transgender activist, Marsha P. Johnson, who dedicated her life to LGBTQ+ rights.

The story of the enslaved woman who challenged slavery in the highest court in the United States.

A captivating storyteller - how did this girl from Mississippi become the most powerful woman that America has known?

Linda Brown was just 9-years-old when she was thrust into the national spotlight, as she fought - and won - against racial segregation in the American school system.

In 1969 Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Woman elected to Congress spoke to the US House of Representatives to argue in support of a controversial women’s rights bill; the Equal Rights Amendment.

Kentucky-born Garrett Morgan invented life saving gadgets, but despite facing racial prejudice all his life, Morgan was recognised as one of America’s most prolific and socially conscious inventors

How could democratic societies claim to support equality while holding humans in bondage? The legacy of slavery tests the democratic ideal that everyone has an equal right to freedom and self-governance.

In 1970s New York, 16-year-old Jamaican immigrant Clive Campbell (aka DJ Kool Herc) used his trusty turntables to loop funk records and bring the beat. In the process he helped create one of America's true art forms: hip hop.

Dred Scott went to the US Supreme Court to sue for his freedom. The Court ruled that Black people were “inferior beings” with no Constitutional rights. This decision helped spark the American Civil War.

By day he worked as an iron merchant – but by night, Thomas Garrett helped thousands escape slavery as a station master on the Underground Railroad.

Abolitionist and social reformer Frederick Douglass believed that the U.S. could become the greatest nation in history – if it accepted the defining principles set out in his speech, Composite Nation.

The Selma to Montgomery March was one of the most important actions of the Civil Rights Movement – but what were the connections between Black Americans and Hawaiians and why did the leaders wear Hawaiian necklaces?