Black History

SuperStock's 'Black History' gallery is a visual celebration of the rich and vibrant culture of African Americans in the United States. Featuring a diverse selection of images, this collection offers an inspiring look at the history and heritage of African Americans. From iconic civil rights leaders to everyday people, this gall...Read more

The Black Last Supper 20th C. Joe Cauchi (1918-1986 American)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (I) by Joe Cauchi, 1918-1986

Black Madonna IV (Arab) 1998 Elizabeth Barakah Hodges (21st C. American)

Black Madonna X: Iris and Ephrem 1999 Elizabeth Barakah Hodges (21st C. American) Acrylic

Fatima 1994 Elizabeth Barakah Hodges (21st C. American) Acrylic

FURIOUS 6 (2013), directed by JUSTIN LIN.

Montgomery, Alabama: 1956. Rosa Parks seated toward the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

1970S African American Group Couple Dancing Flashing Disco Lights

Los Angeles, California: November, 1974 Two young playmates with their new Shindana Li'l Souls dolls, "Wilkie" and "Sis". Wilkie is dressed in acrylic bellbottoms, a silver buckled green belt and a long sleeved shirt with matching hat. Sis wears cotton hiphuggers and a red gingham blouse and her black yarn hairdo has two beribboned, fluffy pom-poms.

1970S African-American Family Loading Station Wagon Picnic Dog Mother Father Boy Girl Suburban House

USA, New York, Finger Lakes Region, Auburn, Harriet Tubman House, former home of US Civil War abolitionist

Malcolm X waiting at Martin Luther King Press Conference, Head and Shoulders Portrait, Marion S. Trikosko, March 26, 1964

USA, Texas, Huston, Ella Fitzgerald, Georgiana Henry, Illinois Jacquet and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in police department

Taking Sunflower to Teacher 1875 Winslow Homer (1836-1910 American) Watercolor Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

Black Madonna & Child Joe Cauchi (1918-1986 American)

Braids 1995 Arnold Rice (20th C./American) Oil on Canvas Private Collection

Underground Railroad Aids Runaway Slave by John Davies, 20th Century

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Anthony Gruerio, 1929-1968, 20th Century

Emancipation Proclamation, 1862 American History

Los Angeles, California: c. 1960. Three stylish African American women sitting with their drinks and cigarettes

Marian Anderson is congratulated by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House during the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1965

1970S 1980S African American Girl In Overalls Sitting On Playground Swing

Portrait Of African-American Baby Studio Indoor

Portrait of a young couple grinning

Embracing African-american married couple, studio shot

Happy African-American woman holding receivers

American female singing group, The Supremes. Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.

Ma Rainey con la Georgia Jazz Band. Chicago, 1923.

African-American students leaving Central High School under military escort, Little Rock, Arkansas. Sept.- Oct. 1957.

Thurgood Marshall, special counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, New York, NY, 1952.

Girl in Picket Line, Mid-City Company, South Chicago, Illinois, USA, John Vachon, U.S. Farm Security Administration, July 1941

Howard University students wearing nooses protest the National Crime Conference, whose leaders refused to discuss lynching as a national crime. Washington, D.C., Dec. 1934 (BSLOC_2020_2_91)

Mrs. Rosa Parks, 43, in a forward seat of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on December 21, 1956. It was over a year earlier that the African American NAACP activist ignited off the Montgomery Bus Boycott on Dec. 1, 1955, by refusing to give her seat in the Negro section of the bus, to standing white passenger (BSLOC_2020_2_86)

Thurgood Marshall, ca. 1935-1940. He was influenced by Charles Hamilton Houston at Howard University Law School, receiving his degree in 1933. He represented his first case for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1934, and joined its legal staff in 1936 (BSLOC_2020_2_84)

Uncle Paul's Pawn Shop, Augusta, Georgia, USA, 1899

Man Working in Window and Man Standing in Doorway, E.J. Crane Watchmaker and Jewelry Store, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 1900

Distinguished coloured men. by A. Muller & Co., c1883. Chicago, Illinois. Head and shoulder portraits. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), Blanche Kelso Bruce (1841-1898), William Wells, Brown, (1814-1884), Richard Theodore Greener (1844-1922), Richard Allen (1760-1831), Joseph H Rainey (1832-1887), Ebenezer Bassett (1832-1908), John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), Pinckney Benton Stewart (1837-1921), Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882).

Ensign Jesse L. Brown, seated in the cockpit of an F4U-4 Corsair Fighter plane, the U.S. Navyís first black naval aviator. While in Korea, he was killed in action and posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Langston Hughes and Nancy Cunard in Paris, Anonymous

1970s AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN DRINKING CHAMPAGNE AGAINST CITY NIGHT SKYLINE

1970s AFRICAN-AMERICAN MOTHER DAUGHTER SMILING AT EACH OTHER PORTRAIT

1970s AFRICAN AMERICAN MOTHER DAUGHTER SON FAMILY SITTING PORTRAIT

A Pastoral Visit, by Richard Norris Brooke, 1881, American painting, oil on canvas. An African American family welcoming their elderly pastor to Sunday dinneróa frequent occurrence in both black and white rural parishes that could not afford parsonages. T (BSLOC_2016_6_170)

Engraving showing a well dressed black man being forcibly ejected from a seat on the train by the guard, Philadelphia, USA, 1856. Date: 1856

Josephine Baker (1906-1975), stage performer, French resistance worker and human rights activist. Date: c.1947

New York, New York: February, 1959 A portrait of poet, author, playwright and Harlem Reniassance leader Langston Hughes.

Three Family Toilet. Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). Gouache on paper. Signed and dated 1943. 57.4 x 40.6cm.

Portrait of a Black Sailor (Paul Cuffe) by Anonymous / Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Romanticism / c. 1880 / The United States / Oil on canvas / Portrait / 64,1x52

Josh White with his wife before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950. He was a renowned an African American musician accused of Communist sympathies in 1947, probably provoked by his civil and human rights activism.

General Dwight Eisenhower talking with two African American soldiers at the supply port of Cherbourg, France. Eisenhower commanded a segregated US military during World War II.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy surrounded by African American children. He was visiting a summer reading program in Harlem at the Morningside Community Center, in Manhattan. Aug. 14, 1963.

African American men at a Black Muslim demonstration carrying placards with portrait of Patrice Lumumba, Premier of Congo. Lumumba was executed on Jan. 17, 1961. Both the US and Belgian were acting to kill Lumumba, with the Belgians succeeding assisted by Congolese partners.

Jomo Kenyatta during victory celebrations following general elections in Kenya. He served as the first Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964, as President from 1964 until his death in 1978. June 19, 1963.

Legal retaliation for Montgomery Bus Boycott. Ninety bus boycott leaders gather outside the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, after arraignment for participation in the bus boycott. They were charged with violating a statue barring boycotts without just cause. February 25, 1956.

Disorder in 'Birmingham of the North,' Chester, Pennsylvania. African American man crouches on the ground as he reacts to night stick strikes from state police, following a civil rights demonstration. 1964.

Pastor H.C. McClain looking over the burned ruins of his High Hope Baptist Church, Dawson, Georgia. It was the fourth in a series of African American church burnings, presumably to discourage Civil Rights activism. September 17, 1962

State highway patrolmen search group of Negroes arrested during rioting on Feb. 26, 1946. The Columbia, Tennessee riot began with a minor business dispute between White clerk and a Black World War II veteran. Police reacted with illegal searches and seizures, arresting of over 100, and the death of two in police custody.

African American man with eyes swollen shut from beating. Ca. 1945-50,

March on Washington. Martin Luther King delivers his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Behind King are two Black Muslims who provided security in spite of Elijah Muhammad's call for a boycott of the demonstration. Aug. 28, 1963.

John Lewis, founder of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1964 he organized SNCCs efforts for 'Mississippi Freedom Summer', a multi-organization Civil Rights drive to register Black voters across the south. April 16, 1964.

NYC Memorial service for Medgar Evers. On June 12, 1963, Evers was assassinated by White racist Byron De La Beckwith, because of Evers NAACP leadership in Mississippi.

Medgar Evers, NAACP leader in Mississippi, being interviewed by Bill Peters. Peters (right) was an award-winning journalist who reported on the American civil rights movement. 1963.

Racist Murder in Mississippi. Bulah Melton, widow of shotgun-victim Clinton Melton, talks with NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers. Clinton Melton, a gas station attendant was shot on December 3, 1955 by Elmer Kimbell. Mrs. Melton drowned in a suspicious car accident on Dec. 21, 1955, the week before the Kimbell's trial began. Kimbell was acquitted.

Montgomery Bus Boycott leaders are cheered. Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy calms the audience at the First Baptist Church following a standing ovation for leaders of the bus boycott. The leaders were indicted for violating a statue barring boycotts without just cause. Feb. 23, 1956.

NAACP leaders during press conference at their New York City headquarters. L-R: Roy Wilkins, Heman Sweatt, Robert L. Carter. 1950.

Five African American defendants and their NAACP counsel in Columbia, Tennessee 'Riot' case. Seated L-R: Maurice Weaver, Julius Blair, Alexander Looby, and Walter White. Standing left to right: James Martin, James Morton, Charles Blair, Saul Blair, and M.G. Ferguson. Ca. 1946.

Beatrice Young, victim of police beating. Young talks with Clarence Mitchell of NAACP after testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. Feb. 28, 1957.

William Henry Hastie (1904-1976), a civilian aid to the War Department meeting with Robert Patterson in 1942. He was the first African-American to serve as Governor of the US Virgin Islands, as a Federal judge, and as a Federal appellate judge.

E.D. Nixon, one of the leaders of the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott is cheered by New York City crowds. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell stands at his right. 1956.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters group. L-R: Ashley Totten, union official for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an unidentified man, Asa Philip Randolph, and Maida Springer-Kemp, union official for International Packing House workers. 1950s.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters group. President Asa Philip Randolph is in the center and Vice President Milton P. Webster is on his left. 1930s.

Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, June 24-30, 1925, Denver, Colorado. Sitters include NAACP staff: Walter White, Robert Bagnall, and James Weldon Johnson.

12th Annual Conference of the NAACP. Detroit, Michigan, June 1921. James Weldon Johnson is fifth from right in the front row.

Listening to Booker T. Washington. An African American audience, some standing on railroad box cars, in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1912.

Two policemen carry a young African-American woman arrested during a sit-in at the First National Bank in St. Louis, Ill. Aug. 12, 1963.

African American women dance at a civil rights demonstration. Over the first three weeks of March 1965, the Selma 'occupation' grew to 8,000 protesters, before they left on the Selma-Montgomery March of March 21.

Martin Luther King addresses Selma demonstrators. The previous day 2,500 protested the police violence of 'Bloody Sunday,' on March 7, 1965,

1965 Watts Riot. Police and National Guardsmen hold guns ready as the sweep down San Pedro Street in a major riot torn area in Southeast Los Angeles. August 14, 1965.

Violence on South Los Angeles street. Police attempt to clear the streets following a rash of window-breaking and rock-throwing in the African American section of the city. Oct. 19, 1967.

National Guardsmen at a Los Angeles City Limits. As the 1965 Watts Riots subsided, National Guardsmen still stand by until recalled by Gov. Edmund Brown. August 17, 1965.

National Guard in Watts during the 1965 race riot. Debris litters the streets and a geyser from broken fire hydrant sprays at left. August 14, 1965.

March 1966 Watts Riot. Police search African American youths in Watts During the second race riot in eight months. Two persons were killed, 25 injured and 31 persons were arrested during the shooting, 1ooting, burning, and beating. March 15, 1966.

Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. Police examine the draft credentials of some African American men. June 11, 1943.

African American youth protests the police killing of Leonard Deadwyler. On May 7,1966, Deadwyler was pulled over for speeding his pregnant wife to the hospital, when his car accidentally lurched forward, a Los Angeles police officer shot and killed him.

National guardsmen, with bayonets fixed, patrol in the Chicago's West Side. The rioting started a few days earlier, but by July 15, 1966, calm was restored and most of the national guardsmen returned to their armories.

A female for school segregation punches a pro-integration demonstrator in the face. Both were outside Mount Greenwood elementary school in Chicago. Police arrested two men (including the one getting punched), and charged them with disorderly conduct. Jan. 31, 1968.

Chicago African American policeman tries to calm a crowd. Violence broke out for the second night in a row on the southwest side. July 13, 1966.

An African American pokes his finger into a bullet hole in the Oakland Black Panther's headquarters. Two Oakland police officers allegedly fired over a dozen shots into the building. There were no injuries. Sept. 10, 1968.

Vice President Spiro Agnew meeting with Kenya's Revolutionary President Jomo Kenyatta. Agnew holds a wooden carving of a rhinoceros presented to him by Kenyatta. July 12, 1971.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace talks to residents of an African American neighborhood that was bombed. In the 1960's, Birmingham was called, 'Bombingham', because of the frequency of white racist terrorism against integrationists. April 1, 1965.

Two African American women stand outside Parkland Hospital in Dallas, mourning President John Kennedy's death. November 22, 1963.

Harlem bookstore named 'The House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda'. On Seventh Avenue, between 125th and 126th Streets, it is recruiting office for the 'return to Africa movement'. July 24, 1964

Police club demonstrators in Harlem on July 20, 1964. They were protesting the fatal police shooting of 15 year old James Powell four days earlier.

An African American mother serves six children a breakfast of corn flakes and milk in their apartment in New York's Harlem district. The large jar on the table serves as the family's sugar bowl. April 6, 1968.

Two young African Americans girls, one screaming during riots in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. They were making a dash to freedom as they tried to avoid police. July 21, 1964.

An African American who police accused of wielding a knife is taken into police custody. It was the fourth night of rioting on Harlem's 125th Street, July 21, 1964.

African American who has been shot in the leg, is restrained by New York City Police. He allegedly threw beer bottles at police on Lenox Avenue between 126 and 127th streets. The Harlem riots followed the July 16, 1964 killing of a 15-year-old boy by a policeman. July 20, 1964.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Malia, left, and Sasha, right, sit for a family portrait in the Oval Office, Dec. 11, 2011.

Policemen watch as 'Freedom Riders' arrive in Jackson, Mississippi on a Trailways bus. May 24, 1961.

Supporting the Freedom Riders. Members of the 'Washington Freedom Riders Committee,' hang signs from bus windows to protest segregation. New York City, May 30. 1961.

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