Witness History: Black history

In August 1969, Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem - the first classical ballet company to focus on bla... Read more

In December 1966, a group of Black activists in Los Angeles created the winter holiday Kwanzaa to try to reclaim their A... Read more

Contains descriptions that some listeners may find upsetting Enslaved Africans are forced to work in sugar cane field... Read more

In 1931, nine black teenagers were convicted of raping two white girls in the southern US state of Alabama.Eight were se... Read more

In 1916 Marcus Garvey arrived in the US and began a movement for black pride. His dream was that black people would live... Read more

In 1925 a young black American dancer became an overnight sensation in Paris. Her overtly sexual act soon made her one o... Read more

In 1967, the world heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, refused to be indicted into the American military. His decision t... Read more

Andrew Goodman was one of the three civil rights workers killed by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1964. He and the ... Read more

In 1958, a mixed-race couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, were arrested and then banished from the US state of Virginia ... Read more

On August 28th 1963, the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, made his historic plea for an end to racial d... Read more

The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode on buses, testing out whether bus stations were complying with t... Read more

In September 1971 prisoners in a high security jail in the US rose up against their guards taking 42 people hostage. Af... Read more

The US first began sending troops to the UK in 1942 to help in the war effort. It is estimated that at least two million... Read more

The great African-American jazz singer Nina Simone moved to the Liberian capital Monrovia in September 1974. Simone was ... Read more

In June 1980, the Guyanese opposition leader and academic, Dr Walter Rodney, was killed in a bomb explosion. He was one ... Read more

In 1963 a small group of British black activists started a pioneering protest against racism within the local bus compan... Read more

In 1975, Lee Elder braved death threats to become the first African-American golfer to play at the prestigious US Master... Read more

The Black Panther Party hit the headlines in the late 1960s with their call for revolution. But they also ran a number o... Read more

In August 1958 Britain was shocked by nearly a week of race riots in the west London district of Notting Hill. The clash... Read more