Black History - Getty Images

Black history

Illustration of a Renaissance minstrel playing a lute as a swirling speech banner filled with question marks flows out

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These are history's greatest unsung heroes. How many have you heard of?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A smiling person in the foreground, with two older black‑and‑white portraits behind them and bright festival colours in the background.

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She was hunted by the FBI and transformed British culture – so why haven't you heard of this black activist?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two circular portraits overlap against a bright blue background. The left shows a sepia‑toned image of a person in older clothing seated before an ornate backdrop. The right shows a modern colour portrait of a smiling person with curly hair, a light blue bow, and a decorative outfit.

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I was so inspired by Harriet Jacobs that I wrote a song about her: Corinne Bailey Rae on her history hero. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Black‑and‑white portrait of Frederick Douglass, an older Black man with grey hair and a full beard, wearing formal 19th‑century clothing and looking slightly to the side against a plain backdrop.

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Frederick Douglass changed America forever. Here's how. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A gold funerary mask shaped into a human face, with almond‑shaped eyes, a prominent nose, and a closed mouth. The surface is worn and cracked, with some sections missing.

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Blood and plunder: the looted African gold – and the fight to get it back. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 19th-century print shows sailors in a small boat harpooning a whale beside a sailing ship. The whale thrashes in the waves as spouts of water rise from its back.

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“It was the greatest act of violence for 66 million years”: why the modern world was born of bloodshed. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 4The Zong massacre | A murderous insurance scam that exposed slavery’s horrors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of a man with a snake like body, all piled on top of each other, with a sad face and long black hair, plus red wings

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The US 'voodoo' scare: why 19th-century racists spread fake news about Haiti. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A multicoloured photo collage, including an Indian soldier in WW1 military uniform, a woman dressed in dark jacket, cap and tie

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"There's little understanding of the shared history of Britain and the subcontinent" | South Asian Heritage Month. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A collage of pictures shows a black woman wearing a spotty dress in the foreground to the right. To the left, an image of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by a police officer, with a bus and several slogans in the background

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Suing for equality: how Sarah Mae Flemming began the legal fight against segregation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "Samba schools used the carnival to foreground overlooked histories". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Reshaping narratives, repatriation and Richard III : 25 lessons we've learnt from history in the last 25 years. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pauline Black and Billie Holiday

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My history heroPauline Black chooses Billie Holiday. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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"These women transformed his understanding of the world": making Malcolm X. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Amazing livesRobert Wedderburn: the ‘notorious firebrand’ who campaigned against slavery. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portraits of William and Ellen Craft

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A “desperate leap for liberty”: how Ellen and William Craft made a daring escape from slavery. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Basildon Park in Berkshire

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The profits of slaveryThe dire impact of empire on Britain's countryside. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Black America on British airwaves. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The history of Africa: why we need to look much deeper than slavery and colonisation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Women in WW2 army uniform march in front of an airplane

Second World War

Is The Six Triple Eight a true story? The real WW2 history, as told by the movie’s historical consultant

A mural in Bristol of activist Roy Hackett, one of the primary organisers of the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott (Photo by Steve Taylor ARPS/Alamy Stock Photo)

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Hakim Adi | “Racism in Britain has a long history – but so does anti-racism”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "Many are turning against prejudice. But we cannot be complacent". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King George V crosses a river in Nepal, 1912. “Historians have moved the discussion on empire in all sorts of directions over many years,” says Bronwen Everill. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

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The challenge of writing histories of the British empire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Britain’s war on the slave ships: how the Royal Navy policed the Atlantic in the 19th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Video podcastInside a Jim Crow asylum. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jason Okundaye (Photo by Damien McFadden)

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Jason Okundaye on the Black gay community and its tensions: “The movement has always been a broad church”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of Huey P Newton sat at an event.

20th Century

Is The Big Cigar true? The real story of how a fake Hollywood film helped Black Panther Huey P Newton escape the FBI

An African samurai: the tall, strong African man who acquired the name Yasuke in Japan was at first an object of curiosity but soon became a prized samurai warrior serving a powerful warlord in the violent intrigues that wracked the country during that volatile era. ((Illustration by Lynn Hatzius for BBC World Histories)

Tudor

Who is Yasuke? The true story of the African who became Japan's first black samurai

Zeinab Badawi (Photo by Jamie Simonds)

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Zeinab Badawi on writing the history of a whole continent | “It is important to look at African history through the lens of African people themselves”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

OJ Simpson confers with lawyers during his murder trial

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What the OJ Simpson trial revealed about modern America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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