James Van Der Zee: Portraitist of Black Harlem’s Renaissance
James Van Der Zee was a renowned African American photographer and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, celebrated for his evocative portraiture. Over his...
Category : Biographies
Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy: A Nigerian-British Painter of Majestic Presence
Chinwe Ifeoma Chukwuogo-Roy MBE (1952–2012) was a distinguished Nigerian-British visual artist who gained international recognition for her portraiture, figurative works, and vibrant depictions of African...
William Davidson: A Jamaican Radical in Cato Street
William Davidson (c.1781–1 May 1820) was a Jamaican‑born, Black British radical in early nineteenth-century Britain. His execution for the Cato Street Conspiracy places him at...
Empress Zewditu: She Is the Crown
In the early twentieth century, when almost the entire African continent had been carved up under European oppression, an African woman sat on a sovereign...
Hubert Henry Harrison: Father of Harlem Radicalism
Hubert Henry Harrison (1883–1927) was a towering Caribbean-born intellectual, agitator, and educator whose life forces us to rethink the origins of Harlem radicalism, the New...
Ten “Know Thy Self” Quotes by Na’im Akbar
No Black history library or book collection is complete without a work by Dr. Na’im Akbar. In addition to being a critical, insightful, and authoritative...
José Leonardo Chirino: Freedom Fighter of Coro
José Leonardo Chirino (25 April 1754 – 10 December 1796) stands as one of the most significant anti-Maafa freedom fighters in eighteenth-century Venezuelan history. A...
A Free Black Man in Captivity: Reflections of Mumia Abu-Jamal
“I am a thinker, writer, activist, creative being, man, dad, husband, grandpop, and son. But just to keep it simple: I’m a free Black man living in...
Joseph Emidy: The Afro‑Portuguese Virtuoso Britain Tried to Forget
Joseph Antonio Emidy (c. 1775–23 April 1835) was an Afro‑Portuguese violinist, composer, and teacher who became one of the most prominent musical figures in early...
Jacques Stephen Alexis: Healer, Novelist, Revolutionary
Jacques Stephen Alexis (1922–1961) was a Haitian novelist, neurologist, and Marxist political activist whose life and work came to embody the intertwined struggles for culture,...