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Category: African American History

Excerpt from a newspaper showing a large bold headline reading: Tulsa's Terrible Tale is Told. Below the headline are three small photographs showing damage to Tulsa and nurses who volunteered to help.

Tulsa Race Massacre: Newspaper Complicity and Coverage

Posted by: Malea Walker

The following is a guest post by Arlene Balkansky. Arlene recently retired from being a librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, and was a regular writer for Headlines and Heroes. One hundred years ago, Greenwood, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, described as Black Wall Street, was destroyed by white mobs in …

Photograph shows portrait of abolitionist Sojourner Truth wearing polka dotted dress and holding cased photograph of her grandson.

Sojourner Truth’s Most Famous Speech

Posted by: Malea Walker

The following is a guest post by Arlene Balkansky. Arlene recently retired from being a librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, and was a regular writer for Headlines and Heroes. On May 29, 1851 at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth delivered what would …

Dr. Charles R. Drew: Blood Bank Pioneer

Posted by: Heather Thomas

The amount of people who owe their lives to Dr. Charles R. Drew is beyond measure.  The African American physician and surgeon pioneered the preservation of blood and plasma at the start of World War II and remained a leading authority on the subject for the rest of his career.  He is responsible for America's first major blood banks and introduced the use of mobile blood donation and transport stations—later known as “bloodmobiles.”

A child carrying a bundle of newspapers in one hand, the other arm held high with a copy of the Anchorage Daily Times, the headline reading

Good News!

Posted by: Amber Paranick

Presenting feel-good news stories to round out our posts for the year and say farewell to 2020 on a positive note! Hopefully, these uplifting, heartfelt, funny, and touching stories from yesterday’s news in Chronicling America* serve as a diversion from the darker news of this year… In 1947, after scouring newspaper stories around the country, …

Trials of the Century: 19th Century Edition

Posted by: Heather Thomas

There are some cases that capture the public's imagination and cause a media frenzy. There's the political trials, which cover treason, spying, dissidents, and radicals. Celebrity trials that involve high-profile people, whether victims or defendants. And the "whodunit" trials that are surrounded in mystery. Whatever the case, 19th century America has its share of legendary trials that captivate the public interest and newspapers deliver all the sensational details.