I do believe that there is genealogical value in the surname of the freedman, just as there is genealogical value in the surname of any other man, of any race or...
Read moreCemetery serves as silent sentinel of black history
Grand qualities have elevated Mount Hope to the National Register of Historic Places, a rare honor for a graveyard. Just off Fayetteville Street south of downtown, it...
Read moreAfricatown to Become Heritage Community?
A push to make one of Mobile’s, and some would say the nation’s, most historically important communities a registered heritage community could be growing legs among...
Read moreA Crumbling Piece of History
WHENEVER a heavy storm rips through this coastal city, Mary Witkowski, a local historian, immediately has the same worrisome thought: “Are they still standing?” So...
Read moreAfter 200 years, 3 slaves get a final resting place
The 200-year-old remains of three black slaves from Sussex County were reburied Thursday afternoon in a small graveside ceremony in Newton after being stored at Space...
Read moreDNA research finally confirms ‘Roots’ author’s ties to Alabama
Author Alex Palmer Haley knew he had roots in northwest Alabama, he just couldn’t prove it. He had only an oral history passed down through generations of his family...
Read moreBlacks and the Confederacy: an incomplete story
It’s estimated that between 60,000 and 93,000 blacks served the Confederate military “in some capacity.” Many, no doubt, were “body...
Read moreFinding their voice
A new group has formed for Bermudians wishing to embrace their Native American roots. The St. David’s Islanders and Native Community was created for Bermudians...
Read moreFamilies research African-American Confederates
Historians such as Earl Ijames have learned that very little about the Civil War was black and white, even when it came to the hues of the soldiers’ skin...
Read moreIs Your “Cherokee” Ancestry Actually African-American?
In his landmark manifesto Custer Died for your Sins, American-Indian activist Vine Deloria notes an increasingly popular phenomenon: people of white ancestry claiming...
Read moreThe Bahamas DNA Project
Are the Long Island Deans in the Bahamas descended from the Queen of Sheba? Do the Sweetings of Green Turtle Cay trace their heritage to a Roman soldier? Are the...
Read moreFound – And Lost: 1786 Slaves’ Freedom Site Discovered, Now Doomed by Developer
Black history is again bittersweet in this old Hudson River city. On May 1, 1786, seventy-six years before the Emancipation Proclamation, the very first liberation...
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