black history

The first Black doll Debra Britt ever received was not, in fact, Black. Dolls with skin tones akin to hers were rare at the time, so her grandmother improvised, submerging a white vinyl doll in black dye to darken its pale exterior.

The Gilded Age, the late 19th century period of economic boom, conjures up names of wealthy white magnates such as the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies, who built transportation and steel empires. But the names of notable African heritage people of the same era remain lesser known.

A new proposal in the Boston City Council would memorialize Crispus Attucks, a Colonial-era figure embraced as the first martyr of the American Revolution.

In the front left corner of the hushed sanctuary in Old North Church sits a box pew lined in plush red velvet, as it might have looked centuries ago.

Keith Boykin wasn’t planning on writing a book in 2022 when the idea for “Why Does Everything Have to Be about Race?” took hold.

On a frigid morning in 1964, students crowded into the assembly hall at St. Mark’s Social Center in Roxbury. Bundled in winter coats and boots, some students wore excited smiles while others stayed straight-faced, waiting. Outside, school buses carrying suburban students waited among piles of snow.

Black folks have a long history of not only creating dynamic and vibrant businesses, but entire business districts, all while surrounded by the ever-present threat and promise of white domestic terrorism.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an opportunity for reflection on the legacy of the great civil rights leader and the work still needed to realize his vision of a more equitable world. Institutions around Boston will offer free admission, art-making activities, concerts and community dialogues honoring King.

In “Phillis in Boston,” a world premiere play debuting at the Old South Meeting House next month, African American poet and prodigy Phillis Wheatley is in the spotlight.

For years, Boston native and Emmy award-winning story designer Wyatt Jackson and writer and executive producer Robby Thomas dreamed of a performance that told the story of African American history in a sweeping, multimedia style.

Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, long a haven for prosperous Black vacationers, this summer hosted a larger number of public events designed to inform and motivate well-educated participants to collaborate in pushing back against the unfolding attack on civil rights.

More than 100 years later, Viola Fletcher can still vividly remember the smell of her thriving neighborhood — dubbed America’s “Black Wall Street” — burning.