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America's Black Holocaust Museum

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America's Black Holocaust Museum

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Our Museum's 4 Themes: Remembrance, Resistance, Redemption, Reconciliation

The museum comprises eight online galleries, with exhibits tracing the American experience of black people from pre-captivity in Africa to present day. Exhibits include interpretive text, videos, still images, and interactive opportunities. Visitors can dialog within each exhibit, contribute text and video, shop the gift store, follow links to additional resources, and more.

10/28/2026

On October 28, 1968, James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” was in its fourth consecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. The song held the top position for six consecutive weeks, from October 5 through November 9. Its success carried a declaration of Black pride to a broad audience. The recording also reached No. 10 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100.

Brown recorded the song in August 1968, four months after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Black communities continued to confront discrimination and the effects of segregation. The Black Power movement emphasized self-determination, community control, and pride in Black identity.

The song gave musical expression to this political and cultural landscape. Built around a driving funk rhythm, Brown’s forceful lead vocal, and a call-and-response chorus, it invited listeners to join its central declaration. Young voices answering Brown helped make the recording sound collective: pride was something to speak aloud and share.

Brown was already a major figure in American music, known for his energetic performances and influential work in rhythm and blues, soul, and funk. With this recording, he placed a direct statement of Black identity at the center of a hit single. Its message reached beyond the charts, becoming closely associated with the Black Power movement and a wider affirmation of Black dignity.

The song’s language was significant in a period when Black Americans were challenging racist assumptions and demanding greater control over their lives and communities. It offered a refrain that listeners could sing together, giving public voice to pride and self-respect.

“Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” remains an important work in the history of Black music and the Black freedom struggle. Its place atop the R&B chart in October and November 1968 marks a moment when a declaration of Black pride resonated across the country. Its lasting legacy demonstrates how music can carry the language of a movement across generations.

&ImProud

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Images:
1) Pin back button, celebrating James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black & I'm Proud."
2) James Brown performing on the ABC Television program Music Scene. 1969

10/27/2026

On October 25, 1868, armed white men began a campaign of racial terror in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, aimed at suppressing Black political participation. Over the next several days, white mobs attacked Black residents, killing at least 35 people. The massacre unfolded just days before a presidential election that tested the future of Reconstruction and Black citizenship.

Following the Civil War, Reconstruction opened new opportunities for formerly enslaved people to participate in public life. In Louisiana, Black men registered to vote, organized politically, and supported the Republican Party, which backed Reconstruction. In St. Bernard Parish, where Black residents made up the majority of the population, their votes carried the potential to shape local and national political outcomes.

The 1868 presidential election pitted Republican Ulysses S. Grant, a former Union general who supported Reconstruction, against Democrat Horatio Seymour, who opposed Reconstruction policies. White Democrats in Louisiana sought to preserve their political power as Black men exercised their newly established voting rights.

On October 25, a group of armed Seymour supporters confronted Eugene Lock, a Black resident, and demanded that he cheer for their candidate. When Lock refused, they shot and stabbed him to death. A white police officer who had served in the Union Army was also killed. Fearing further violence, many Black residents fled their homes.

Armed white men then terrorized Black residents throughout the parish. They killed people, robbed homes, and seized possessions, voter registration papers, and military discharge documents belonging to formerly enslaved men who had served in the Union Army. Some residents sought refuge in nearby cane fields. Federal troops arrived to quell the violence.

At least 35 Black people were killed. Some historical accounts estimate that the death toll may have reached 135, although the full number remains uncertain. No participants were ever held accountable for the massacre.

The political consequences were stark. Despite the parish's Republican majority, Grant received just one vote in the November presidential election. The violence had helped silence Black voters through fear and intimidation.

The St. Bernard Parish Massacre was part of a wider campaign of racial terror across Louisiana during Reconstruction. Remembering these events reveals the violence used to obstruct Black political participation and preserve white supremacy after slavery. It also honors the Black residents whose efforts to exercise their rights confronted organized resistance at a pivotal moment in American history.

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Image:
Illustration of systems of racial control in Louisiana before the St. Bernard Parish Massacre. Sketched by Frederic B. Schell; published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, July 11, 1863. Library of Congress.

10/26/2026

Mahalia Jackson was born on October 26, 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she grew up singing in the Baptist church. Her voice carried Black gospel music to audiences, making her one of the most recognized artists of the twentieth century. She became widely known as the “Queen of Gospel.”

Jackson moved to Chicago in 1927 during the Great Migration, when Black Southerners relocated to northern cities amid Jim Crow. In Chicago, she sang in church choirs and storefront congregations. She remained committed to gospel despite pressure to pursue blues and other secular music.

Her recording of “Move On Up a Little Higher,” released in the late 1940s, became a breakthrough, selling millions of copies and expanding gospel’s audience. Jackson’s success helped bring the music of Black churches to radio, television, concert halls, and listeners across racial lines. In 1950, she made her Carnegie Hall debut, a milestone in the recognition of gospel music.

Jackson used her influence to support the Black freedom struggle. She sang at civil rights gatherings and fundraising events, including programs connected to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She supported the Montgomery bus boycott and developed a close relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who valued her music and commitment. Her performances helped connect the movement’s public actions with the spiritual traditions that sustained many participants.

On August 28, 1963, Jackson performed at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She sang “I’ve Been ’Buked and I’ve Been Scorned” before King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Her presence reflected the important role of gospel singers and Black churches in the movement, where music strengthened solidarity, expressed faith, and carried calls for freedom.

Jackson continued performing internationally and reached audiences through recordings, radio, and television. After King was assassinated in 1968, she sang “Precious Lord” at his funeral, honoring a song closely associated with him. Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972, at age 60.

Her legacy lives in gospel music and in the history of a movement where cultural expression, faith, and organized action helped advance the struggle for racial justice.

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Image:
Mahalia Jackson, May 7, 1964. cropped.

10/23/2026

When Pelé arrived in the United States in 1975, professional soccer was still struggling to attract a large American audience. His signing with the New York Cosmos made national headlines and brought the sport a global star. For three seasons, the Black Brazilian helped draw crowds, television attention, and new interest to a game many Americans knew only from a distance.

Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil, Pelé had become a global sports figure long before he came to New York. At 17, he helped Brazil win the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He won again in 1962 and 1970, becoming the only player to win three men’s World Cup titles.

The Cosmos signed Pelé to help build professional soccer in the United States. His arrival brought immediate media attention, and attendance at Cosmos matches grew over the next two seasons. The club also benefited from other international stars and larger stadiums. After his Cosmos career ended, Pelé continued supporting youth soccer through camps in New York.

His influence carried meaning beyond the field. As a Black Brazilian, Pelé became one of the world’s most recognizable athletes while Brazil continued to face racial and economic inequality. The country abolished slavery in 1888, yet Black Brazilians experienced discrimination in public and economic life. Pelé’s success offered a powerful image of Black achievement across national borders.

His relationship with racial justice was complicated. Pelé generally emphasized professional achievement and personal example rather than public protest. Some Black Brazilian activists criticized him for not speaking more directly about racism. His approach differed from athletes such as Muhammad Ali, who openly challenged racial injustice.

Pelé helped bring global soccer into American popular culture and inspired young people to take up the game. Soccer’s growth depended on many players, clubs, coaches, and communities, but his arrival became a landmark in the sport’s American history and popular culture.

His birthday offers an opportunity to consider how Black achievement crosses borders. Pelé’s legacy connects Brazil and the United States through sport, representation, and continuing debates about the responsibilities of public figures.

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Images:
1) Pelé at the Mariott Amsterdam, 1981
2) Pelé playing for the New York Cosmos, circa 1976.
3) Pelé is the only player in history to win three FIFA World Cups.

10/22/2026

On October 22, 1945, workers at the American To***co Company’s Cigar Factory in Charleston, South Carolina, joined a strike demanding higher wages, back pay, medical benefits, and protection from racial discrimination. More than 1,000 workers took part. Most were Black women, whose leadership made the five-month struggle a chapter in Black labor history, helping carry “We Will Overcome” toward its later role as a civil rights anthem.

The Charleston strike was part of a dispute involving American To***co Company factories in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey. During World War II, the union accepted a no-strike pledge. Company management had promised wage increases after the war, while Black workers continued to face lower pay and barriers to better-paying jobs.

After the war ended, workers pressed for promised back pay and improved wages. They also sought nondiscrimination clauses in hiring and firing, paid medical benefits, and a closed union shop, which would require employees to belong to the union. The strike began on October 22, when members of Food, To***co, Agricultural & Allied Workers of America (FTA-CIO) Local 15 joined the broader work stoppage.

Black women formed the core of the picket lines, joined by Black men and white women and men. Workers carried signs, canvassed neighborhoods for support, and urged consumers to boycott the company’s products. They endured a cold, wet winter and harassment from segregationists and local police. On October 26, Local 15 held its first integrated union meeting in Charleston at Morris Street Baptist Church, a step toward in*******al organizing.

Music helped sustain the strikers. Factory worker Lucille Simmons adapted the spiritual “I Will Overcome One Day” into “We Will Overcome.” Workers sang it together during the strike. The song later reached activists at Highlander Folk School and developed into “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

The strike ended in late March 1946. Workers won an eight-cent-per-hour raise, and some restrictions on Black workers’ access to skilled positions eased. Many demands remained unmet, yet the strike demonstrated the power of collective action and connected labor rights with the growing struggle for civil rights.

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Image:
1) Striking workers standing outside the American To***co Company's Charleston Cigar Factory, Charleston, SC, 1945. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston.
2) A boycott leaflet issued by the Food, To***co, Agricultural and Agricultural Workers Union, CIO, during the 1945–1946 Charleston cigar factory strike. Library of Congress

10/21/2026

On October 21, 1916, Anthony P. Crawford, a 56-year-old Black farmer and landowner, was lynched by a white mob in Abbeville, South Carolina. He owned 427 acres, raised 13 children, and supported local Black institutions. He also helped his community.

Crawford had brought cottonseed to town to sell to W. D. Barksdale, a white merchant. They argued over the price. After Crawford cursed Barksdale, a crowd formed and pursued him. Crawford struck one of his attackers with a hammer. He was badly beaten before Sheriff R. M. Burts took him to jail. Crawford was later released on bail, but a white mob seized him from custody.

The mob dragged Crawford through town to the county fairgrounds, where he was beaten, stabbed, hanged, and shot. A coroner’s jury attributed his death to unknown people, and no one was prosecuted for the lynching.

Crawford’s life represented Black achievement and community leadership. He had built a school on his land for Black children and was active in civic life. His farm supported his family. His murder destroyed a life and threatened the security that years of work had built.

The terror continued after the lynching. White residents moved to expel the Crawford family from the area, and relatives were threatened and forced to leave. Much of the family’s land and property was lost. Family members scattered to places including Illinois and New York, while some remained in South Carolina. The family’s displacement fractured a close-knit community across generations.

Their experience belongs alongside the history of the Great Migration, when millions of Black people left the South amid racial violence, segregation, and limited economic opportunity. In Crawford’s case, the family’s departure followed a direct campaign of intimidation after a public racial killing.

In 2016, descendants and community members gathered in Abbeville to commemorate the centennial of Crawford’s lynching and dedicate a historical marker. His story preserves the memory of a Black landowner whose murder and the expulsion of his family exposed the reach of racial terror: it attacked lives, property, education, community institutions, and the ability to pass hard-won resources to future generations.

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Image:
Anthony P. Crawford. Library of Congress

10/20/2026

Born October 20, 1904, Enolia Pettigen McMillan was an educator and civil rights leader whose work challenged racial inequality in Maryland’s public schools and strengthened the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

McMillan was born in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, to John Pettigen, who had been born into slavery, and Elizabeth Fortune Pettigen. When she was three, her family moved to Maryland in search of better educational opportunities. She earned a degree in education from Howard University in 1927 and a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1933.

McMillan began teaching in 1927. From 1928 to 1935, she taught and served as principal at Pomonkey High School in Charles County, Maryland. Her work in segregated schools showed her how racism shaped students’ opportunities and educators’ working conditions.

Her master’s thesis examined inequalities in Maryland’s secondary education system, including differences in school terms, salaries, and curricula. She used her knowledge and organizing skills to challenge the state’s segregated school system. As president of the Maryland State Colored Teachers’ Association and regional vice president of the National Association of Colored Teachers, she advocated for better pay for Black teachers, improved school facilities, and stronger educational resources. Her advocacy came at a professional cost; she was denied promotions she had earned within Baltimore’s school system.

McMillan also became a leading organizer in the NAACP. In 1935, she helped reactivate its Baltimore branch. She became branch president in 1969 and worked to strengthen the organization and increase Black participation in civic and economic life. She also supported efforts to expand opportunities for Black businesses seeking public contracts.

In 1984, McMillan became the first woman elected national president of the NAACP, serving until 1990. She also helped raise funds and build support for moving the national headquarters from New York to Baltimore in 1986.

McMillan died on October 24, 2006, at age 102. Her life joined education, research, and community organizing in a sustained effort to confront racial inequality. Her legacy lives on in the educators she championed and the civil rights institutions she helped strengthen, advancing the struggle for equal opportunity across generations.

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Image:
1) Enolia Pettigen McMillan, July 1999 by Drew Altizer during the 90th Annual NAACP National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

10/19/2026

On October 19, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the U.S. Navy to admit Black women to the Women’s Reserve, known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). The decision opened a path to naval service that had been closed to Black women since the program began during World War II.

Established in 1942, the WAVES enabled women to serve in Navy assignments on shore, helping release men for duty at sea. Members worked in clerical services, supply, communications, aviation support, weather forecasting, medicine, and technical fields. Despite their contributions to the war effort, Black women were initially excluded because of racial discrimination in military policy.

Black women and their allies challenged this barrier. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressed for equal opportunities in the armed forces. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt supported broader racial inclusion, while WAVES director Mildred H. McAfee advocated admitting Black women to the program. Civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune also helped advance the effort. Their advocacy contributed to the pressure for change that reached the Navy in 1944.

Following Roosevelt’s authorization, the Navy opened the WAVES to Black women on an integrated basis. Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills became the first Black women commissioned as WAVES officers in December 1944. After completing officer training at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School in Northampton, Massachusetts, they received assignments at the WAVES training facility at Hunter College in New York City. Pickens served as a physical training instructor, while Wills worked as a classification test administrator.

Approximately 70 Black women served as enlisted WAVES during World War II. Pickens and Wills remained the Navy’s only Black women officers in the WAVES during the war. Their service demonstrated the contributions Black women could make when military policy allowed them to participate.

The struggle for equal opportunity continued after the war. The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 established a permanent place for women in the regular armed forces, although restrictions remained. That July, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, calling for equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed services regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin.

The history of the Black WAVES honors women whose service and determination helped open naval opportunities for generations to follow.

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Image:
Lieutenant (j.g.) Harriet Ida Pickens and Ensign Frances Wills, the first Black women officers in the U.S. Navy’s WAVES, close a suitcase after graduating from officer training in Northampton, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1944. U.S. Navy, National Archives and Records

10/17/2026

On October 17, 1969, fourteen Black football players at the University of Wyoming were dismissed from the team after seeking to protest racial discrimination by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their stand, remembered as the Wyoming Black 14, became a defining moment in the intersection of sports, civil rights, and freedom of expression.

The controversy began when Willie Black, a graduate student and chancellor of the university’s Black Student Alliance, learned of the church’s policy prohibiting Black men from receiving the priesthood. The church also restricted Black members’ participation in temple ordinances. Brigham Young University (BYU), operated by the church, was scheduled to play Wyoming on October 18.

On October 15, the Black Student Alliance called for a protest, urging the university to end athletic competition with BYU and encouraging athletes to wear black armbands. The fourteen Black football players decided to approach head coach Lloyd Eaton about wearing the armbands during the upcoming game.

On October 17, the players arrived at Eaton’s office wearing black armbands. They were dismissed from the team before they could present their case. The university’s Board of Trustees subsequently upheld the decision, and the players’ athletic careers at Wyoming were disrupted. Their scholarships were retained through the end of the semester.

Wyoming defeated BYU 40–7 the following day. The dismissals nevertheless sparked national attention and protests on campus. The Associated Students of the University of Wyoming passed a resolution supporting the players, while the controversy prompted wider debate about racial discrimination, student protest, and institutional responsibility. The team lost its final four games of the 1969 season and finished 1–9 the following year.

The players pursued different paths after their dismissal, building lives and careers beyond football. Their stand also became part of the university’s history. In 2002, a sculpture honoring the Black 14 was added to the University of Wyoming’s art collection. Fifty years after the incident, the university formally apologized to the surviving players, acknowledging the unfair treatment they had endured.

The Black 14’s legacy continues through educational initiatives and public remembrance. Their story preserves the significance of fourteen student-athletes who sought to challenge racial discrimination and whose actions helped bring a national conversation about justice into college sports.

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https://black14.org/

Images:
1) A mural in Laramie, WY honors the Black 14.
2) Ten of the Black 14 on the University of Wyoming campus in the days following their removal from the football team. Fall of 1969. Original black & white photo by Art Shay, as seen on ESPN. Digital art by ABHM.
3) The full Wyoming football team. 1969.

Address

401 W North Avenue
Milwaukee, WI
53212

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 3pm
Saturday	10am - 3pm

Telephone

+14142093640

Website

http://www.abhmuseum.org/

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