Celebrating Global Black Heritage

Black History Directory

A comprehensive, crowdsourced calendar and registry highlighting Black people and historical events from around the world.

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Historical Figures

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Sports

Bessie Coleman

United States

Bessie Coleman was an American aviator and the first African American woman to hold a pilot license. She was a daredevil stunt pilot who became a sensation in the 1920s.

Education

Carter G. Woodson

United States

Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, and journalist who founded Negro History Week on February 7, 1926—the precursor to Black History Month. Known as the "Father of Black History," Woodson dedicated his life to documenting and celebrating African American contributions to civilization. Born to former slaves in Virginia, Woodson worked in coal mines before pursuing education. He became just the second African American (after W.E.B. Du Bois) to earn a doctorate from Harvard University. In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to promote research and publication of Black history. Woodson believed that history was made by ordinary people, not just prominent figures. He chose February for Negro History Week to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. His vision eventually expanded into Black History Month in 1976, ensuring that African American history would be studied and celebrated nationwide.

Sports

Cathy Freeman

Australia

Cathy Freeman is an Australian former sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres. She is an Olympic champion and a symbol of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Arts

Chevalier de Saint-Georges

France / Guadeloupe

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. He was one of the most celebrated figures in 18th-century French society.

Literature

Frederick Douglass

United States

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his antislavery writings and incisive oratory.

Activism

Harriet Tubman

United States

Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.

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