Court documents found in St. Louis tell the inspiring story of courage when slaves from around the area fought for their freedom by challenging their owners in court

Civil Rights pioneer, Melba Pattillo Beals, Ph.D, one of the Little Rock Nine who turned her trials into triumphs. She is a best selling author of “Warrior’s Don’t Cry”, “March Forward Girl” and “I Will Not Fear.” Her writing healed past pains: Jim Crow Era of separate drinking fountains, bathroo...

The Iron Riders were a group of U.S. Army Buffalo soldiers who were tasked with a daunting job: bike 1,900 miles from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Officially known as the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, this group of men had to test whether bicycles were a more efficient way to travel o...

In June 2011, through a unique collaboration with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., The Henry Ford had the privilege of displaying the actual Emancipation Proclamation for 36 hours. The response from the community was overwhelming - and inspiring. Watch what happened when thousands of pe...

Courtesy of The Henry Ford, discover how an 1840 anti-slavery almanac, a painting of labor strikers, and a pink knitted hat connect, with Senior Curator and Curator of Public Life Donna Braden.

Freedmen’s Bureau officials encouraged people to deposit their savings in the private Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Account holders believed their monies were safe, but the deposits were not guaranteed. Changed lending policies in 1870, the economic panic of 1873, and mismanagement put in...

Frankie Muse Freeman wore many hats in her remarkable one hundred and one years including wife, mother, lawyer and civil rights activist. As a youth in her hometown of Danville, VA Freeman regularly faced racial discrimination and promised herself that she would find a way to fight the bias that...

Christo Brand is a South African author and former guard at Robben Island Prison. Beginning his tenure there in 1978 at age 19, Brand was responsible for guarding Nelson Mandela during his lifetime sentence. In 1982, Brand was transferred along with Mandela to Pollsmoor Prison, where the pair dev...

Wings for this Man is a propaganda film produced in 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first unit of African-American pilots in the US military formed during World War II.