Culture and Sports Archives - Picturing Black History

A photograph of three African American women who were identified as domestic helpers waiting for a street car, all three women are wearing coats and hats, two men and a woman who are white are also waiting on transportation, Atlanta, Georgia. 1939. From the New York Public Library.

Black Women’s Work and Leisure in the Black Mecca

The everyday lives and struggles of Black women in Atlanta reveal the roots of their activism.

Singer Mahalia Jackson speaking at the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Over 70,000 persons attended the rally.

Mahalia Jackson and the Music of the Movement

A photograph of Mahalia Jackson in 1964 offers a window on the role of music in the civil rights movement.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform 'Revelations' at Sadler's Wells in London, UK, June 1973.

Alvin Ailey’s Pluralistic Vision for America

The famed choreographer used his art to emphasize the universal resonance of African American stories.

July 1972: A group of youths spraypaint graffiti on a New York wall.

The Graffiti Art Movement in Philadelphia

“Coming to a Wall Near You!” From the 1960s to 1980s, Black teenagers in Philadelphia convinced the world that graffiti wasn’t vandalism, but public art rooted in protest and self-expression.

Eduardo Kobra's 'Muddy Waters Tribute' mural, part of the Wabash Arts Corridor is displayed downtown in Chicago, Illinois on April 13, 2019.

Muddy Waters: Ain’t that a Man

Bluesman Muddy Waters went from the Mississippi cotton fields to Chicago and changed the face of American music.

Paul Robeson, singer, performer and civil rights activist, is welcomed in Russia, Moscow, Russia, January 19, 1935.

Paul Robeson in the Soviet Union

Between the 1930s and 1960s, the famous singer and actor made many visits to the world’s first socialist country, which made a lasting impression on his art and politics.

African-American children in a segregated swimming pool at Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, 1955.

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With integration a legal right, swimming pools became a new battleground in the segregation fight.

January 1922: Soccer player Jack Leslie from Plymouth Argyle FC.

The Erasure of Jack Leslie

The hidden story of the English national team’s first Black footballer.

American gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe standing onstage, singing at the microphone with her guitar, at Cafe Society Downtown, New York City, December 11, 1940

The Godmother of Rock and Roll

The remarkable story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a forgotten founder of rock and roll.

Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land, testifies before the Senate subcommittee on Executive Reorganization on the conditions of black American ghettos.

Manchild in the Senate Hearing

Claude Brown testifies about the urban crisis in 1960s America.

Photographs and stories that changed the world

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