Black History Month

Learn about black history and the story of the civil rights movement in Atlanta, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. Join The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as we take a look at some of the most prominent individuals, events and stories that have impacted America, over the course of Black History Month.

Black History Month Coverage

Amid the pandemic, Black History Month series explored health and wellness

Tyler Mitchell attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute September 2021 benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" exhibition in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Credit: Evan Agostini

After Vogue and Beyoncé, what’s next for photographer Tyler Mitchell?

Peter Byrd, 66, of Douglasville, learned he was HIV positive 33 years ago. In the early days of his fight, he gained and lost weight and has been near death. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

Credit: Steve Schaefer

Despite progress, HIV remains disproportionately Black in Georgia

We take a look back at the historical significance of the Haitian revolution, the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Members of Atlanta's Haitian diaspora share how they remember learning about their country's history, and what it means to them.

Credit: Richard Watkins

Finding power in history: Haiti’s fight for Black freedom continues to inspire today

American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist James Baldwin poses at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, southern France, on November 6, 1979. (Ralph Gatti/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Credit: RALPH GATTI/AFP

How masculinity, spirituality and race guided James Baldwin’s towering career

Nyla Rose delivers a devastating Camel Clutch (a rear chinlock while seated on an opponent's back) to Ryo Mizunami on an All Elite Wrestling program. Rose was AEW's second woman's champ and is the first openly transgender wrestler. (Courtesy of TNT)

Credit: Courtesy of TNT

Wrestling with Blackness: African-American artists reach beyond top ropes

Hosea Williams leads an Atlanta sanitation workers strike, on April 13, 1970. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution collection at Georgia State University

Hosea Williams: The Great Defier and Founding Father of a New America

Atlanta and Georgia

Actress Nichelle Nichols wasn't sure that she wanted to continue portraying Lieutenant Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television show until Martin Luther King, Jr. — a Trekkie — convinced her that her presence on the show was valuable. (Paramount Television; Chick Harrity / AP)

Credit: Paramount Television

A conversation with MLK Jr. kept Nichelle Nichols from exiting Star Trek

Georgia’s Critter Fixers: Black vets go from HBCUs to Nat Geo Wild

In Atlanta’s Washington Park, longtime residents work to preserve ‘living history’

Historic Black school in Marietta gets new life with renovation project

Claude Mundy Jr. was fatally shot while responding to a burglary in January 1961. He was Atlanta's first black officer killed in the line of duty. (Credit: Atlanta Police Department)

Credit: Atlanta Police Department

Claude Mundy: Atlanta’s first Black officer killed in the line of duty

8-year-old Atlanta girl creates products to inspire, motivate Black children

Alonzo Herndon Atlanta’s first Black millionaire

‘A theater of our own’: The Ashby brought movies to a Black audience

History

AJC reporter Ernie Suggs, the editor of the AJC Sepia Black History Month series, shows off his Afro in Dunwoody, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. (Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com)

Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

For many, an Afro isn’t just a hairstyle

In decades after Civil War, promise of West lured Black homesteaders

Betty and John: How love broke the color line in Georgia

Harlem Globetrotters faced racial tension, brought basketball thrills

Black History Month 2019: Double consciousness

Black double-consciousness: Du Bois’ century-plus concept still valid

AJC Bookshelf: 3 must-read books for Black History Month

Black midwives carry on traditions but fight for legitimacy in Georgia

At Tuskegee, U.S. experimented on Black men with syphilis for 40 years

Kendrick Lamar performs in January 2018 when the College Football National Championship took place in Atlanta. Akili-Casundria Ramsess/Eye of Ramsess Media

Credit: Melissa Ruggieri

Kendrick Lamar: The rapper who won over academia

Outkast: Big Boi, Andre 3000 thrived as duo, then apart

Ruth Carter speaks at the 2018 WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center California. (Gage Skidmore / WikiCommons)

Credit: Gage Skidmore

Costume designer Ruth E. Carter adorns stars for Hollywood

AJC Sepia Black History Moment | Prince

Prince: Why he still reigns, even in death

Black History Month 2019: The Greenwood Massacre

Tulsa Race Riots: White mobs reduced Black community to rubble in 1921

How the ‘Weeping Time’ became a lost piece of Georgia history

‘The Weeping Time’: Largest sale of enslaved blacks in U.S. history

Black History Month 2019: Double consciousness

Black double-consciousness: Du Bois’ century-plus concept still valid

More coverage of Black History Month from the AJC

Sigma Gamma Rho celebrates a century of ‘Greater Service’

The long, sad ride of Major Taylor

‘The Mothers of Gynecology’ remembered in Montgomery monument

Art Blakey: His university graduated generations of jazz leaders

Black women, long ignored in infertility discussions, speak out

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Black Marine Archeologists

How ‘The New Negro’ started a renaissance, and not just in Harlem

Black women, and queens, wear more than just a crown

A King’s wedding

The Black Woman

Mashama Bailey is the James Beard award-winning executive chef and partner of the Grey in Savannah. (Courtesy of Cedric Smith)

Credit: Cedric Smith

Chef Mashama Bailey brings ‘a little bit of Black Power’ to the plate

Ella Baker, official of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, speaks at the Jeannette Rankin news conference on Jan. 3, 1968. AP Photo

Credit: AP

Ella Baker led civil rights movement from the shadows

Ma Rainey, right, appears in the touring show "The Rabbit Foot Minstrels" in an undated photo. She was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Ga., and became known as the "Mother of the Blues" through her appearances in the South and Midwest. The male actor is not identified. (AP Photo/HO)

Credit: AP Photo/HO

Ma Rainey, ‘Mother of the Blues,’ injected her music with color and controversy

Fred Gregory’s career as an astronaut spanned from 1978 to 1991, three shuttle flights and 456 hours in space. Courtesy of NASA

Former astronaut’s career links Tuskegee Airmen to International Space Station

Credit: Ric Watkins

Vivien Thomas: The Black man who saved ‘blue babies’

A portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois from 1904, when he was a professor at Atlanta University. The Atlanta Constitution often reported on the professor's activities, and first mentioned him as a Harvard student in 1890.

Credit: Library of Congress

AJC Deja News: Harvard student W.E.B. Du Bois quite an orator (1890)

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