On December 1, 1955, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, as dictated by existing segregation laws. She was neither the first African American, nor the first woman to challenge the segregation laws within a public transportation sy...

The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In this video, curators Amber N. Mitchell and Heather Bruegl (Oneida/Stockbridge-Munsee) discuss the origins of this landmark piece of legislation, the changes it prompted, and the le...

Through the lens of historic photographs, we learn a story of African American history. Today, African Americans in United States agriculture are virtually non-existent, and in a world of mechanized industrial farming, it is easy to forget the hands-on physical labor required in the past. The ric...

The March (1964) is a documentary directed by James Blue on the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the watershed events of American history, made by the United States Information Agency for showing outside of the USA. Only in 1990 did it become available domestically. Its high ...

This is the story of F4U Corsair pilots Jesse Brown and Medal of Honor winner Thomas Hudner in the Korean War - the tragic tale from the movie "Devotion".

In June 2011, through a unique collaboration with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., The Henry Ford had the privilege of displaying the actual Emancipation Proclamation for 36 hours. The response from the community was overwhelming - and inspiring. Watch what happened when thousands of pe...

Bridget Biddy Mason is an American Hero. Born enslaved, Mason became one of the first prominent citizens and landowners in Los Angeles through the second half of the 19th Century. She also founded the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles in 1872. But in 1848, she walked 1,700 m...

This insightful look at Elizabeth Keckley, born into slavery, freed woman, dressmaker to Varina Howell Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln, brings to light a little known part of the Lincoln story and American history

Court documents found in St. Louis tell the inspiring story of courage when slaves from around the area fought for their freedom by challenging their owners in court

Within the turmoil of The Civil War, Sable, a Confederate engineer's house slave, risks everything by stealing military plans in hopes of delivering them to her runaway husband and a trusting Union soldier. But when a battle drifts into their drop spot, nothing goes as expected and a simple plan ...

Military Images magazine subscriber Ken Harris emailed Ron about a particular regimental history, one that he was very familiar with and had used from time to timw. In reviewing the book, Ron scrolled to a section that had previously escaped his attention—the Publisher's Preface—which provides co...

The death of Capt. André Cailloux, commanding Company E of the 1st Louisiana Native Guards, at Port Hudson spread shock waves through New Orleans—and one of the largest funeral processions in the city's history. It also prompted larger questions about race and identity.

Capra produced this film as a follow-up to the Why We Fight series. At the time it came out it was regarded very highly. Capra was most fastidious about avoiding cliches about black people that had dogged most Hollywood product from the beginning. Like the Why We Fight pictures, this one was inte...

Legacy of the Little Rock Nine: Featuring Ernest Green and Melba Pattillo Beals, PhD chronicles the story of the first 9 African American students to attend the all white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn how powers of local & national government battled integration 3 years afte...

Wings for this Man is a propaganda film produced in 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first unit of African-American pilots in the US military formed during World War II.

Caroline Branham was one of George Washington's housemaids at Mount Vernon. Part of Branham's role on the estate was cleaning and maintaining the rooms in the Mansion. She was also the person who first discovered Washington was ill shortly before he passed. In this video, join one of our interpre...

Freedmen’s Bureau officials encouraged people to deposit their savings in the private Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Account holders believed their monies were safe, but the deposits were not guaranteed. Changed lending policies in 1870, the economic panic of 1873, and mismanagement put in...

Thomas Laws deserves to be much better known than he is! Enslaved at the beginning of the Civil War, it was his action and bravery that provided the conduit for General Sheridan to get vital intelligence to launch the 3rd Battle of Winchester. Find out more! “Fridays at the Front” is a collaborat...