Black History

At SuperStock, we are proud to provide a gallery of stunning images and clips that capture the richness and expansiveness of African-American history. Our collection of Black History stock images is an invaluable resource for those seeking to illustrate this important component of American Heritage. From iconic figures to ever...Read more

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.

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.

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

Emancipation Proclamation, 1862 American History

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

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.

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

John Lewis, founder of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1964 he organized SNCC’s 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Voter registration drive. In a southern church basement, an African American leads a training session for a voter registration drive. Ca. 1950s.

Sign reading 'waiting room for colored only, by order Police Dept.' Ca. 1940s or 1950s.

Colored Waiting Room sign. Four African American men stand outside of the Manchester, Georgia, railroad station. May 1938.

Ending de facto segregation in Boston. An African American child from Roxbury attending school in Jamaica Plain as part of 'Operation Exodus' which bused children to integrate Boston schools. Sept. 9, 1965.

African American author George Washington Lee. He poses with his 1937 novel 'River George', about a young African American World War I veteran who returns home to injustice and is ultimately lynched. 1945.

African American boys playing in vacant lot. They make a debris strewn lot their playgound on Manhattan's West 91st Street. 1962.

Wilma Rudolph sets a World record for the indoor 60-yard sprint Madison square Garden. The Olympic Triple Gold Medal Winner, ran won the race in 6.8 seconds. February 17, 1961.

Bill Russell in his Boston Celtics uniform in 1958.

Ticket to world championship boxing match at Boston Garden between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston on Nov. 9, 1964.

Joe Louis' last professional boxing fight. He sinks through the ropes in an eighth-round knockout by Rocky Marciano in Madison Square Garden. Oct. 27, 1951.

Joe Louis fans in front of fan headquarters to celebrate Louis' close decision victory over Tom Farr, the famous Welsh/British boxer. Harlem, New York City, August 30, 1937.

Supporters of Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, cheer on a man burning draft card in Houston, Texas. In 1967, Ali fought for exemption from military service as a conscientious objector.

Malcolm X being interviewed by reporters in New York, 1964.

African Americans protesting Black Muslims in front of the Los Angeles County courthouse. April 29, 1963.

James Meredith and wife in front of segregationist poster as they talk to a reporter. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered his admission to the University of Mississippi. Sept. 25, 1962.

Dorothy Height and Rosa Gragg meet with LBJ. During the first month of his presidency, Johnson met with many African American leaders as he developed his Great Society programs. Dec. 13, 1963.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978), a Nigerian feminist, was a political and women's rights activist. Ca. 1950-60s.

John Lewis (left) and Hosea Williams, leaders of the Voting Rights campaign in Selma Alabama in February-March 1965. Both men were later elected to the US House of Representatives from Georgia.

In spite of earlier protest and harassment, African American students arrive at Van Buren High School, Little Rock's second largest. Sept. 9, 1958.

Ndebele artist, Esther Mahlangu, South Africa.

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c. 1820 10 March 1913)

CETEWAYO or CETSHWAYO Zulu king (1873-79) photographed during his visit to Britain Date: 1826? - 1884

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR composer Date: 1875 - 1912

African American construction worker at the Douglas Dam on the French Broad River, one of the Tennessee Valley Authority public works projects of the New Deal. June 1942.

Young African American women sewing with machines and by hand in the sewing class at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Greensboro, N.C.

African American coal miner, his wife, and two of their children. The oldest child's bowed legs may be caused by rickets, a nutritional deficiency disease. Bertha Hill, West Virginia, 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.

Muhammed Ali and Howard Cosell on 'Speaking of everything with Howard Cosell' on WABC radio in 1965.

Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High is harassed on the first day of school on Sept 6, 1957. Arkansas National Guards were ineffective in controlling racist crowds and were replaced by Federal troops on September 24.

Wilma Rudolph, (1940-1994), was the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. At the Rome Olympics in 1960.

Arthur Ashe, (1943-1993), playing tennis at Forest Hills, N.Y. in 1964. He was the first African American to reach the highest levels of professional tennis.

Harlem crowd celebrating African American boxer, Joe Louis' victory against former heavyweight champion, Primo Carnera. June 19, 1935.

Mourning family of one of the four African American girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963. Ku Klux Klan members were responsible for the bombing.

African-American soldier charging with bayonet fixed during World War II combat training at the U.S. Naval training center, Great Lakes, Illinois. Ca. 1942-45.

African American doctor placing patient in the correct position for taking chest x-ray for use in the diagnosis in 1937.

Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), African American painter and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Ben Hodges, born to a Black father and a Mexican mother, was a wild west gambler, cattle rustler, and con man. He died an old age in 1929, and is buried in Dodge City, Kansas.

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), African-American civil rights leader and vice-chairperson of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) challenged the legitimacy of the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 1964.

African American first graders learn to brush their teeth at the Miner Normal School near Washington, D.C. ca. 1910.

Adah B. Thoms (1870-1943), African American registered nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Nurses (with Martha Franklin) in 1912. The organization campaigned for integration of black nurses in hospitals, in nursing education, and in the U.S. military. Print from PATHFINDERS, A HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS OF COLORED GRADUATE NUYRSES, 1927.

Negro going in colored entrance of movie house on Saturday afternoon, by Marion Post Wolcott, Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi, 1939.

Medgar Evers, Chief officer of NAACP, ca. 1957

School in session - half of the students are not in school but out picking tobacco. Colored School at Anthoston, Kentucky. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, September 13, 1916.

The 'Zoot Suit' styled trousers, called tramas, of three African American college students at Bethune-Cookman College. The high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers fashion trend thrived in the Latino, and African American youth subcultures during the early 1940's era. January 1943 photo by Gordon Parks.

U.S. Army, African American soldier, ca. 1917

U.S. Army, African American soldiers, ca. 1917

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), photo by Alan Lomax. Belle Glade, Florida, 1935

Two African American soldiers wearing Union uniforms. Tintype ca. 1860-1870

The Civil War. Freed slaves ('contrabands') in the camp of the 2nd Regt. Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry. Washington, DC. cabinet card ca. 1861-1864

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