Alexis Clark Archives ‑ History.com

How Madam C.J. Walker Became a Self‑Made Millionaire

Despite Jim Crow oppression, Walker founded her own haircare company that helped thousands of African American women gain financial independence.

How Southern Landowners Tried to Restrict the Great Migration

When more than six million African Americans left the South for better opportunities in the North and West, between 1916 and 1970, their relocation changed the demographic landscape of the United States and much of the agricultural labor force in the South. This decades‑long, multi‑generational movement of Black Americans, known as the Great Migration, impacted […]

Why Mixed‑Race Children in Post‑WWII Germany Were Deemed a ‘Social Problem’

After Allied Forces defeated Germany in World War II, the United States began its occupation of West Germany from 1945 to 1955. Although American soldiers were tasked with promoting democracy to a country ravaged by fascism, Jim Crow prevailed in the U.S. military and Black GIs were subjected to discrimination by white American soldiers. But […]

9 Entrepreneurs Who Helped Build Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’

As more is learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, including the discovery of mass graves, the stories of the African Americans who turned the city’s Greenwood district into “Black Wall Street” are equally as revealing. Before a white mob decimated 35 blocks of a thriving community, African Americans had migrated to Tulsa, pooling […]

How Barbara Jordan’s 1974 Speech Marked a Turning Point in the Watergate Scandal

In a perfect storm of unlikely circumstances, Barbara Jordan, a junior congresswoman from Houston, Texas, who grew up in segregation, landed a primetime spot to deliver an opening statement on July 25, 1974, during President Richard Nixon’s impeachment hearings. Jordan’s speech catapulted her onto the national platform, but it wasn’t just her oratory skills and […]

How the Tulsa Race Massacre Was Covered Up

During the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, a devastating and violent riot obliterated Tulsa’s Greenwood district, commonly referred to as Black Wall Street for its concentration of Black‑owned businesses and prosperity. The massacre’s victims were hastily buried in unmarked graves, and then a quiet effort began to suppress the memory of the atrocity. Subsequent generations […]

The Children’s Crusade: When the Youth of Birmingham Marched for Justice

Toward the end of April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and fellow leaders in the civil rights movement faced a grim reality in Birmingham, Alabama. With diminished support and fewer volunteers, their campaign to end segregationist policies was teetering on failure. But when an unorthodox plan to recruit Black children to march was implemented, […]

Black Americans Who Served in WWII Faced Segregation Abroad and at Home

When the Selective Training and Service Act became the nation’s first peacetime draft law in September 1940, civil rights leaders pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt to allow Black men the opportunity to register and serve in integrated regiments. Although African Americans had participated in every conflict since the Revolutionary War, they had done so segregated, […]

Why Buffalo Soldiers Served Among the Nation’s First Park Rangers

Among the earliest stewards of the nation’s national parks were soldiers from segregated Black regiments. Starting in the 1890s, the Buffalo Soldiers, who had earned valor fighting in the Indian Wars and Spanish‑American War, added park ranger to their titles and played a critical role in protecting and building the infrastructure of the country’s vast public lands. […]

How the Police Shooting of a Black Soldier Triggered the 1943 Harlem Riots

In 1943, the United States, heavily engaged in the fight against Nazism and fascism in World War II, was also dealing with a serious conflict at home. Black Americans across the country faced segregation, discrimination and economic hardship. Though the struggle for equality was heavily concentrated in the Deep South, black people in the North […]

Why Eisenhower Sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock After Brown v. Board

When the governor of Arkansas failed to integrate Central High School, President Eisenhower called in federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine.

The Black Businessman Who Built an Empire Despite Jim Crow Oppression

During the 1950s and ‘60s, the civil rights movement dominated the political landscape. But for Bernard Garrett, an African American born and raised in the South, the surest path to improving conditions for black Americans was by achieving economic freedom. Garrett, unbeknownst to many, purchased at least 177 buildings, including what was considered to be […]