My discovery of African-American history came out of necessity and self-preservation. I am what some would call the "white sheep" of the family (notice me in the picture with my ...

I remember being one of the first students to integrate Beltsville Elementary in Beltsville, Maryland. I was not in the first class but one of the first groups. I remember ...

I enjoyed the story about the slaves given safe haven at Fort Monroe, Va. I worked at the fort in 1972 when I was in college and always felt like ...

As a child born in the South, but raised in Newark, NJ, I almost feel like my parents guarded us against all that went on in the South. I attended ...

My mother was born and raised in and all black town called Mound Bayou in Mississippi. She came to Chicago in 1969 where she settled with her sister. She would ...

I was raised in very diverse Miami. My parents were raised in Mississippi and Alabama. My Mother made sure that I had a basic understanding of our history. When Roots ...

Professor Gates thank you for Many Rivers to Cross. I grew up in the segregated south of Alabama.We celebrated one week of black history not nearly enough to learn our ...

My introduction to the Civil Rights was in 1970, I was 5 years old, I was living in New Haven, Connecticut. My mother was actively involved in the Black Panther ...

Being a child of the 60's, I remember not having access to many written resources about my ancestry. My Louisianan parents were my most important teachers of my heritage. While ...

Dear Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., How Are You? I Am So Happy To See Your Works In The Midst Of Black People. After All You've Been Through, I Believe You ...

I attended Concord Baptist Elementary School in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. At that school, I was exposed to Black History. It opened in me an appetite for learning about me and ...

I learned a lot of history from my grandmother and my mother. History as taught in the schools was boring. I learned from my grandmother about her family's struggles living ...

My grandmother is the beautiful woman in the middle. We found out the name of our ancestor slave on my grandmother's side who survived the middle passage. Her name is ...

Growing up, I knew about slavery from what I learned in school and from what I saw on TV and movies. Now, I wouldn't call that "learning" anything. I must ...

I loved reading about American black history as a elementary school student. It was never taught to me in school like I believed it should have been. So, I read ...