black history

Inside the 219-year-old African Meeting House, where Frederick Douglass once thundered against slavery and Black families built their own schools as acts of defiance, community leaders gathered this week to warn against what they call an effort to erase America’s full history.

The Trump administration’s approach to history, particularly its challenge to a truthful Black history, represents more than a disagreement over facts. It is a part of a larger ideological battle over national identity.

If you thought there were no Black people on Nantucket Island back in the day, other than Frederick Douglass delivering his anti-slavery speeches, you’ll quickly be disabused of that notion. Visit the Museum of African American History on Nantucket and speak with the African American staff members there.

Visitors gathered at the Museum of African American History (MAAH) in Boston last Monday to see the unveiling of their newest exhibit titled “Black Voices of the Revolution.”

On the night before Juneteenth, hundreds of members of the Black community and their allies commemorated the 72nd wedding anniversary and the civil rights legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King and honored local leaders committed to building a more racially just and equitable city.

The daughters of two associates of Martin Luther King Jr. from his Boston years recently unveiled a plaque in Roxbury where he attained membership in the nation’s oldest Black collegiate fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

When two white men entered Joseph Clash’s North End barbershop on Feb. 2, 1863, he probably thought little of their arrival. A well-known figure in the neighborhood where most Blacks lived in Boston at the time, Clash had made a career of catering to the needs of whites in his various enterprises, which included a restaurant, a dance hall, a catering business and, for a short time, a brothel.

When I was growing up, my mom would never miss the Roxbury Homecoming celebration. Even as she got older, we would stake out a spot the night before and return the next day and set up our cooler, food and chairs for the community picnic that’s been taking place in Franklin Park for decades.

In April 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Carter Playground on the edge of Roxbury to Boston Common. It was a rally that called for action on civil rights and segregation in schools.

“Beautiful, bustling, and Black”—that was how author, attorney and activist Hannibal B. Johnson described the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in his book “Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District.”

As I reflect on Black History Month 2025, I’m reminded why my late husband, Roland, and I wrote “Still I Rise: A Cartoon History of African Americans,” followed by our updated edition “Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans.”

As we celebrate Black History Month, we honor the rich, diverse and powerful stories that have shaped and continue to shape our culture, history and future. At ROXFILM, we revel in the strength, resilience and creativity of our ROXFILM family and beyond as they continue to amplify voices that have been overlooked or underrepresented.