Esau and Janie Jenkins dedicated themselves to improving the lives of Black residents on Johns Island, South Carolina. Esau Jenkins purchased this Volkswagen van around 1967, and the couple used it in much of their work. The van's rugged character is a tribute to the selfless service of Esau and ...

Ona Judge Staines was enslaved and forced to work as Martha Washington's personal servant until she escaped from the President's Mansion in Philadelphia. Much is known of Judge's life in comparison to other people enslaved by the Washingtons as a result of newspaper interviews she gave in 1845 an...

The life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are often hidden behind the continual replaying of a few lines from his “I Have a Dream” speech. In fact, Dr. King’s real story — from unknown Baptist minister to American civil rights leader and international human rights spokesperson — ...

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...

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...

Adolphus Thaddeus Watson, 100 Year old WWII Veteran, who served in the U.S. Army all black 351st artillery unit during the Battle of the Bulge is featured. His story takes us on a historical journey from being raised on a plantation by his Aunt Fannie who was born into slavery, the Jim Crow era, ...

In 1967, Esau and Janie B. Jenkins purchased the 1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon currently on display in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, but their civil rights activism efforts began decades earlier.

Learn more about the Jenkins’ commitment to bettering the lives of residents i...

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

Join Mount Vernon's Curator of Archeological Collections, Sean Devlin, for an in-depth look at a reconstructed slave cabin. What clues can we pull from looking at the structure, the soil, and the material culture around the cabin to help us understand more about the lives of the enslaved? What ac...

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".

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

Civil Rights pioneer, Melba Pattillo Beals, Ph.D, one of the Little Rock Nine who turned her trials into triumphs. She is a best selling author of “Warrior’s Don’t Cry”, “March Forward Girl” and “I Will Not Fear.” Her writing healed past pains: Jim Crow Era of separate drinking fountains, bathroo...

Captain Wendell Oliver Pruitt was a pioneering pilot of the 15th Air Force and a Tuskegee Airman from St. Louis. His story begins with humble beginnings and a desire to fly. A Sumner High graduate who grew up in the Ville neighborhood, Pruitt was well liked and well educated. His quiet demeanor g...

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 Iron Riders were a group of U.S. Army Buffalo soldiers who were tasked with a daunting job: bike 1,900 miles from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Officially known as the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, this group of men had to test whether bicycles were a more efficient way to travel o...

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...

Courtesy of The Henry Ford, discover how an 1840 anti-slavery almanac, a painting of labor strikers, and a pink knitted hat connect, with Senior Curator and Curator of Public Life Donna Braden.

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...

Frankie Muse Freeman wore many hats in her remarkable one hundred and one years including wife, mother, lawyer and civil rights activist. As a youth in her hometown of Danville, VA Freeman regularly faced racial discrimination and promised herself that she would find a way to fight the bias that...