Explore the digital resources on this page to learn more about African American history at the National Museum of American History.
Photo above: Marian Anderson performing at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939. Scurlock Studio Records, Series 4: Black and White Negatives Box 618.04.86, Archives Center (AC0618ns0227136-01jp)
Exhibitions
Greensboro Lunch Counter
Racial segregation was still legal in the United States on February 1, 1960, when four African American college students sat down at this Woolworth counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
On View 2 West
Treasures and Trouble
Looking Inside a Legendary Blues Archive
The display will include examples from the archive of Robert “Mack” McCormickʻs interview transcripts with Black blues artists, his writings, original photographs, recording contracts, instruments, correspondence and more.
On View 1 West
American Democracy
A Great Leap of Faith
American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith explores the history of citizen participation, debate, and compromise from the nation’s formation to today.
On View 2 West
Online
Many Voices, One Nation
Through almost 200 museum artifacts and about 100 loan objects, this exhibition shows how the many voices of the American people have contributed to and continue to shape the nation and its communities.
On View 2 West
Online
Explore More Exhibitions
Articles
Black Life in Two Pandemics: Histories of Violence
August 25, 2020
John Lewis and Good Trouble
July 18, 2020
The history behind Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s saxophone
April 03, 2023
Read More Stories
Educational Resources
- Education | Becoming US: Teacher resources for a more accurate and inclusive migration and immigration narrative
- Social Studies Online: Black History Month | Learning Lab
- Resources on Martin Luther King Jr. | Learning Lab
- Abolition | National Youth Summit
- Freedom Rides | National Youth Summit
- Freedom Summer | National Youth Summit
- Teen Resistance to Systemic Racism | National Youth
- Inspiring STEM Pathways: Contemporary Inventors as Role Models for the Next Generation | Lemelson Center
Podcasts
The museum's newest podcast series, Collected, is a project of the African American History Curatorial Collective. Centering stories curated by the Collective’s members, this podcast offers compelling and accessible journeys through topics in African American history that are particularly relevant today. The topic for the first season of Collected is Black Feminism.
Other Smithsonian-related podcast episodes featuring African American history include:
- The Fugitive Brewer | Smithsonian Sidedoor
- Lena Richard | Smithsonian Sidedoor
- Muhammad Ali’s Robe | Lost at the Smithsonian
Listen to the Collected podcast
Videos
In addition to the recent highlights below, the museum'sYouTube channelhas many more videos that explore African American history, including entries in the Program in African American History and CultureandReckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Tillplaylists.
- Reflections on the Greensboro Lunch Counter
- Recovering Food Histories with Toni Tipton-Martin and Friends
- Stories of Black Philanthropy: Treasures from the National Museum of American History
- What did Tulsa’s Greenwood District look like in the mid-1900s? | Harold M. Anderson Black Wall Street Film Collection
- How are museums collecting around COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter? | Pandemic Perspectives
- Race and Place: Yellow Fever and the Free African Society in Philadelphia | Pandemic Perspectives
- Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail”| Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Quintet
- Melba Liston's“Now, Ain't It” | Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Sextet
- Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” |Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Octet
- Jamming with James: Vocalese in Jazz | Smithsonian Cares
- What's in an Identity? Denea Joseph on the Practice of Intersectional Organizing | Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like
- Civic Action | Young People Shake Up Elections (History Proves It)
Archival Collections
The National Museum of American History’s Archives Center collects, preserves, and provides access to numerousarchival collections related to African American history.
Some highlights include:
- Bernice Johnson Reagon Collection of African American Sacred Music
- Duke Ellington Collection
- Moses Moon Civil Rights Movement Audio Collection
- Program in African American Culture Collection
- Scurlock Studio Records
- Susie Paige Afro-American Greeting Card Collection
The Archives Center recently completed work as part of a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to establish theD.C. Africana Archives Project. The grant aimed to document African American and African culture, history, and politics in Washington, D.C., through photographs and documents held by people and organizations throughout the city.
Museum Objects
Duke Ellington's rosary
This rosary once belonged to Duke Ellington, famed musician and composer, serving as one tangible piece of Ellington’s complex religious identity and expression.
See the Object
Firefighter's Badge for Niagara Fire Company No. 8
William P. Perry, a bricklayer in Charleston, South Carolina, was just 17 years old when he joined the Niagara Fire Company No. 8, an independent African American volunteer fire company in 1861.
See the Object
Harriet Powers's Bible Quilt
Harriet Powers, an African American farm woman of Clarke County, Georgia, made this quilt in the late 1880s.
See the Object
Organ shoes, worn by Althea Thomas
Althea Thomas served as organist for Martin Luther King Jr.’s congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1955 unti King announcing his departure for Atlanta in December, 1959. Her performances while wearing these shoes of gospel anthems such as “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” inspired King and his congregation every Sunday during the landmark Montgomery bus boycott.
See the Object
Prince's Yellow Cloud Electric Guitar
In 1983, Prince hired the Minneapolis, Minnesota guitar company Knut-Koupee Enterprises to build this, likely his first “Cloud” guitar,
See the Object
Defaced Emmett Till Historic Marker
This historical marker erected by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission is pierced by 317 bullet holes; it is only one of many defaced historical markers memorializing sites of Emmett Till's lynching in the Mississippi Delta.
See the Object
Other Smithsonian Resources
- African American History Curatorial Collective | National Museum of American History
- African American History Program | National Museum of American History
- Searchable Museum | National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Anacostia Community Museum
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past
