history

You can read this quote from Iyanla Vanzant in her book Acts of Faith (1993) and in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief…

“I would like to know if I am related to a president of Mexico. The story told to me was that Jesús Carranza, described as ‘former president of Mexico,’ was assassinated by rebels, and his children had to flee the country as a result. (Jesús was actually the father of Venustiano Carranza, who himself became…

You can find this quote, from the character Nana Peazant in Julie Dash’s film Daughters of the Dust, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read how the quote is further referenced here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He…

You can read this quote by the character Zora in Terry McMillan’s novel Disappearing Acts and in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.…

You can read this quote by Marita Golden in Gumbo: An Anthology of African-American Writing (2002), and also in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is…

You can read this quote from a 1997 Essence interview with Geronimo ji-Jaja in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read how the quote is referenced here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. One of the most well-preserved, vivid impressions of the ancient Greek…

You can read this quote from Cathy Hughes in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read how the quote is referenced here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 63: Which black man engaged a…

You can read this quote from the book Giant Steps: The Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1983), and others by Abdul-Jabbar, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read more of The Root’s coverage of Abdul-Jabbar here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He…