Last month, ABC News aired the segment “The Hands That Built the White House,” which highlighted the life of Calvert Ambush, one of the enslaved men who assisted in the construction of the White House portico. Calvert Ambush’s labor not only contributed to the..

Two years ago today, on August 1, 2024, I climbed into my car and drove to one of my favorite places in the world, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

As the country celebrates the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is vital to highlight the contributions of People of Color (and particularly Black Bostonians) to the Revolutionary Era. One of the most notable Black Bostonians..

My paper for the AAIHS meeting had to contribute to an exciting atmosphere of deep intellectual thought amongst people who are also enthusiastic about demonstrating the importance of the past to the present. The theme of the entire conference was “Preserving Histories..

This year I was honored to have a paper accepted by the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) for their annual meeting, held in Pittsburgh on March 27-28, 2026. Some of you may remember that I attended the conference as a spectator last year to learn as..

I had the privilege of attending the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) annual meeting, which was held in Providence, Rhode Island, this year. At the last academic conference I attended, I was still a newly minted PhD discussing my academic research...

Illustration of a home in Freetown, Massachusetts, circa 1895

I read two stories of interest in a recent issue of The Woodstock Villager, a local newspaper from my grandfather’s Connecticut hometown. The first story (on page A3) concerned a Witness..

As a student of family history, I've learned that “old white guys” like me generally know next to nothing about African American ancestry. This isn’t to say that we can’t follow a census record, collect a newspaper clipping, or attempt..

African Founders , a recent publication by David Hackett Fischer, discusses Anthony Jansen van Salee (1607-1676), known as the “Black Mohammedan.”..