African American History Documents

In his book, The Underground Railroad, William Still tells the story of Henry Brown who escaped to freedom in a sealed box.  When the lid was rem...

Sol White published an account of his experiences as an African-American baseball player in his book, History of Colored Base Ball. Portions of that ...

Sol White published an account of his experiences in his book, History of Colored Base Ball. Portions of that significant work are available online, ...

This article, published in the Cleveland Advocate during November of 1918, discusses an interesting phenomenon occurring during the Spanish Flu Pandem...

Rev. Alexander Crummell was an African-American pastor who encouraged his people in the face of ongoing disappointments under U.S. law and in American...

Jackie Robinson's autobiography - I Never Had It Made - was published in 1972.  It allows us to hear from Jackie, first hand, on what it was like...

This image depicts the second page of a three-page telegram which Jackie Robinson sent to President Kennedy on the 15th of June, 1963.  In it, Ro...

Jacob Cook purchased slaves, then those slaves ran away.  Under America's "Fugitive Slave Law of 1850," he had the right to seek-out-and-find tho...

As noted in the book which tells the story of the Amistad captives - compiled by John W. Barber and published by himself and E.L. Barber in 1840 - Jam...

Benjamin Banneker, a free black, prepared an Almanac for 1792 which his publishers called "an extraordinary effort of genius." Banneker’s white ...

Benjamin Banneker, a free black, prepared an Almanac for 1792 which his publishers called "an extraordinary effort of genius." Banneker’s white ...

Image of a Defence Motion in the District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania proceedings - 1860. Click on the image for a better view.