Black Americans

As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black history. President Joe Biden moved quickly last year to federally recognize the day Black Americans have been celebrating since the last enslaved people were...

Over roughly 60 years from the 1910s to 1970, 6 million Black Americans packed what they could and took the nearest train, bus, or horse and buggy out of the South. Many were searching for better lives for their families, economic parity, to get away from Jim Crow laws — “everything that was stifling to them in the South,” said…

Over 60 years in the 20th century, about 6 million Black people moved from rural communities in the South to cities in the North and West to get away from Jim Crow laws and search for economic opportunity — including the family of NBCLX storyteller Jalyn Henderson. She shares her aunt’s and uncle’s perspective on the history of this period,...

Nigerian medical student Chidiebere Ibe honed his art skills and then created multiple medical illustrations that depict Black people – and then his work went viral. What did it mean for other doctors to see those drawings? “I’ve never seen a medical illustration that actually showed a Black or brown mom and a baby. So I knew immediately that it...

Former Nike designer D’Wayne Edwards will reopen the Lewis College of Business, the only Historically Black College in Michigan, which closed down in 2013.

The late Colin Powell was the first Black Secretary of State and deeply studied African American military history, says Brandeis University’s Chad Williams. “We need to remember him as part of that tradition. A tradition that is rife with struggle, with pain, with institutionalized racism, but also with heroic achievement and accomplishment,” Williams said.

“She never knew she was a participant, and that’s the tragedy here, but her contribution to the fields of science and biology is without question and really, unrivaled.” Dr. Ugo Iroku talks about Henrietta Lacks, a Black cervical cancer patient whose cell samples were used in decades of biological research, including for the COVID-19 vaccines. Lacks’ cells were taken without...

Philip Henderson has climbed Mount Everest before in 2012 – but he got bronchitis and stayed in a camp before he could reach the top. He said he would be ready to go back, for the right reasons – and now he will lead the first all-Black expedition to the top of the mountain. Climbers will have to dig deep...

1 in 12 Black Americans have sickle cell trait, which can cause sickle cell disease. But many who suffer have had doctor visits where their pain was not taken seriously – or it was assumed they’re just trying to get pain medicine. Phillip Okwo and Quannecia McCruse from the Sickle Cell Association of Houston explain
more during National Sickle Cell Awareness Month.

Medical mistrust is deeply rooted, particularly in the Black community. A big reason for that is the Tuskegee study, an experiment that lasted 40 years when the U.S. government recruited Black men, who were then denied treatment for syphilis.

Overdose deaths among Black Americans surged during the COVID-19 pandemic

Many Black men and women in the U.S. are keeping tabs on what’s unfolding in the televised murder trial of white former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, taking in what they can before turning away to allow their anger and hurt to subside

If you are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255....
Justin Small was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at the age of 23. Only months later, he died by suicide. Now his brother has joined others in his community of Milwaukee fighting to reduce the stigma of mental illness in the Black community and improve access...

By Jalyn Henderson. A is for Andrea Jenkins, the first openly trans Black woman elected to public office. B is for Bayard Rustin, an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. C is for Harlem Renaissance poet and playwright Countee Cullen. These are the ABCs of Black LGBTQ pioneers.