@pbhosu.bsky.social
Exploring Black history in the US and across the globe. In collaboration with @gettyimages.bsky.social & @originsosu.bsky.social www.picturingblackhistory.org Banner and profile pictures: Getty Images
As we dance into December, we're highlighting the work of Black choreographer Alvin Ailey. Using the universal language of movement, Ailey successfully bridged cultures and generations to celebrate American pluralism, emphasizing the vital contributions of African Americans to the American canon.
05.12.2025 14:56 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement. Scholar Kimberly Monroe explains how student activists influenced three sites: the local campus, elite institutions, and the institutions that set policy for colleges and universities.
21.11.2025 18:41 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It's been one year since we published Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories that Changed the World 🥳As always, a huge thanks to @gettyarchive for their ongoing support and collaboration, and a huge thanks to you all for being with us this last year!
12.11.2025 15:40 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
This #VeteransDay, we celebrate and recognize African American servicemembers. As historian Paul McAllister explains, African Americans have a long history of military service, albeit segregated. Learn how the World Wars altered this dynamic through integration and the inclusion of women.
11.11.2025 18:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Infantrymen jumping from airplanes behind enemy lines was a brand-new proposition during World War II. Black paratroopers proved an equally radical idea. First Sergeant Walter Morris and 16 men formed the “colored test platoon”, forming a full-fledged battalion in November 1944.
#Blackhistory
On November 4th, Millions of Americans cast their votes in general elections across the country. While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the separation between church and state, politicians throughout U.S. history have merged religion with politics.
#Elections #USHistory
While Jackie Robinson is most well-known for his Hall of Fame baseball career, he also broke barriers in military service. As a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, he endured a court-martial in pursuit of equal rights for Black soldiers and symbolized dedication to uplifting the Black community.
30.10.2025 03:39 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 1
Today, millions of Americans trust the National Weather Service to provide timely warnings for hurricanes. That was not the case in 1900 for its predecessor, the U.S. Weather Bureau. The result was a tragedy that reshaped the Gulf Coast and led one man to devote himself to the study of hurricanes.
30.10.2025 03:33 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" features in Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another".
Although labeled the "godfather of rap", Scott-Hern didn't much like the moniker. Learn from historian Steve Conn on how Scott-Heron approached his craft.
#Onebattleafteranother
The #WorldSeries starts this week! ⚾️ Christopher Shell examines how baseball helped Afro-Latino baseball player Orestes Minoso and actor Nat King Cole form a deep connection, as each understood the other’s struggle to gain their respective achievements at a time when race mattered more than talent.
20.10.2025 17:01 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0The sharecropping system kept southern Black farmers dependent on white landowners. Yet even sharecroppers rested on Sunday—and that’s when photographer Ben Shahn caught up with this family in 1935. Learn how Shahn's photographs privileged the Black experience without any visible white interference.
13.10.2025 16:29 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In October 1971, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai hosted a delegation of Black Panther Party members at a banquet in China.
Scholar Melvin Barnes, Jr. tells the story of the relationship between Black Internationalism and Cold War China in the context of broader U.S.-Chinese relations.
#Blackhistory
In October 1952, Charlotte Hawkins Brown retired after 50 years as a principal and teacher. In this photograph, she stands with a bust of Alice Freeman Palmer, one of the first women admitted to the #UniversityofMichigan. Read from Michele Ronnick on how Brown and Palmer demonstrate sisterhood.
07.10.2025 01:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
As part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program, thousands of Black workers joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Philip Hutchinson and Neil Humphrey explore how these men also engaged in transforming the American landscape and increased public access to the outdoors.
#Blackhistory
For college students hoping to join sororities all across the country, fall means rush season!
Professor Casarae Abdul-Ghani tells the story of the influential life of Norma Elizabeth Boyd, a founding member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
#Blackwomen'shistory #Rushseason #Sorority
Meet Sister Rosetta Tharpe-- one of the most influential, if largely forgotten, creators of rock and roll. 🎸
By the age of six, she was touring with her mother throughout the South, singing and playing guitar, not just as an entertainer but as an evangelist.
#rockandroll #Blackhistory
As schoolchildren around the U.S. settle into a new school year, historian Kevin Boyle reminds us of the experiences of Black schoolchildren during the integration era, arguably the most radical turn of the civil rights revolution.
18.09.2025 15:18 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
While the #MissAmerica competition concluded earlier this month, did you know that the Parkridge Country Club held a competition for "Miss Parkridge" in 1928?
Historian Dustin Meier tells the story of the fragile promise of African American recreational space in 1920s Los Angeles.
Our book, Picturing Black History, informs, educates, and inspires our current moment by exploring the past, blending the breadth and depth of Getty Images’s archives with the renowned expertise of Origins contributors and The Ohio State’s and Miami’s History Departments.
#BlackHistory #Books
Mitch Carter recounts how bluesman Muddy Waters went from the Mississippi cotton fields to Chicago and changed the face of American music.
#BlackHistory
In “Preaching with the Choir,“ Michele Valerie Ronnick tells of an Easter sermon with Dr. Benjamin E. Mays at South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, SC.
03.08.2025 05:59 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Delano Lopez tells the remarkable story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a forgotten founder of rock and roll.
#BlackHistory #BlackWomensHistory
Stephanie Shaw discusses the life and work of W. E. B. Du Bois as a writer, educator, and chronicler of Black life in America.
#BlackHistory
Do you need a book to take you through the last of the summer? Check out our book, Picturing Black History!
#BlackHistory #SummerReads
Casarae Abdul-Ghani explores the influential life of Norma Elizabeth Boyd, a founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
#BlackHistory
The influence of writer and musician Gil Scott-Heron is widely felt. However, assessing his legacy involves figuring out just what kind of artist he was.
Read "Gil Scott-Heron: 'Closer to Langston Hughes than Huey Newton,'" by Steve Conn on Picturing Black History.
#BlackHistory #Music #History
Here is the essay! Michael Santiago talks about capturing John Lewis's final crossing.
#BlackHistory
In this exclusive interview, Michael Santiago discusses the responsibility of photographers in preserving history, the emotions behind his most powerful images, and what makes a truly great photo. He speaks to his experience of documenting the final crossing of Civil Rights icon #JohnLewis.
16.07.2025 19:21 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Emily Hawk examines how famed choreographer Alvin Ailey utilized his art to highlight the universal resonance of African American stories.
#BlackHistory #Dance
Celebrating my heritage because I'm Black and I am proud!
#IamMe
#mondaymorning
