Black History

Sky HISTORY - Black History

Sky HISTORY explores the historical, political and social experiences of Black people throughout the ages.

Former NBA player and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 'History is often far more complex, multi-layered, and diverse'
Slyvia Pankhurst

The Suffragette and the Emperor: When Sylvia Pankhurst met Haile Selassie
James Covey and a painting of the Amistad

James Covey: The African sailor who helped the Amistad captives win freedom
The Benin Bronzes

Ancient African artefacts: From the Benin Bronzes to the Zimbabwe Birds
A photograph showing flames across the Greenwood section of Tulsa

'Black Wall Street in flames': The thriving community destroyed in the Tulsa race riots
Martin Luther King delivers his 'I Have a Dream', speech before the Lincoln Memorial

Why August 28 Is such an important date in black History
A photograph of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Facts
A photo montage showing a statue of Mary Seacole at St Thomas Hospital, London, alongside one of only two known photographs taken of Mary Seacole, taken around 1873.

The wonderful adventures of Mrs Seacole in many lands
A photo montage showing Malcolm X in March 1964 and the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, USA.

The lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King: The firebrand and the pacifist
A group of African musicians from the painting, the Engagement of St Ursula and Prince Etherius

Black Tudors: The fascinating lives of Africans living in Tudor England
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

The Tulsa Massacre: The single worst moment of racial violence in US history
The Empire Windrush

The Empire Windrush: The story of the Caribbeans who came to Britain in 1948
A stock image of a mosaic of a woman

The Ivory Bangle Lady and the multi-culturalism of Roman Britain
Ignatius Sancho, 1768 by Thomas Gainsborough

Black Britons who shaped history
A photograph of the arch of Septimius Severus (203 AD) and the ruins of the Roman Forum in Rome, Italy.

Severus: Rome’s first African Emperor
An illustration of HMS Brisk and Emanuela

The blockade of Africa: how Royal Navy ships fought the slave trade
AC W P Ince of British Guiana, AC E Johnson of Jamaica and AC S E Johnson of Jamaica) during a passing out parade of West Indians at a Royal Air Force station in Yorkshire

The Caribbean, Indian and African RAF pilots of WW2
Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.), awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919. Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe William

'The Harlem Hellfighters': WW1's African-American regiment
Slave Ship by JWM Turner and portrait of Olaudah Equiano by Daniel Orme

Olaudah Equiano and the Zong Massacre
A portrait head bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (called Caracalla).

The history of black Britain: Roman Africans
A painting of an African man by Dutch painter Jan Mostaert

The story of Black History Month
A portrait of Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture and the birth of Haiti
A statue of Charles Robert Darwin at the Natural History Museum in London.

John Edmonstone – the man who taught Darwin
A photograph showing Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela: The prison years
Photographs of Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson: The woman who shattered the race barrier at Wimbledon
Frederick Douglass

3 iconic Black civil rights activists born on Valentine's Day
A photograph of the Dahomey Amazons

Who were the Dahomey Amazons? West Africa's fearsome female fighters
Black History Walks

'Black History is literally on their doorstep': Interview with the Tony Warner from 'Black History Walks'