American Experience interviewed writer, Vernon Jarrett, in 1999. Below, read excerpts from his interview. What was it like to be African American in the late 1930s? Well, I was rather young in the ...

Learn about the many ways diplomat, activist, and 2023 American Women Quarters honoree Eleanor Roosevelt made American history through this selected collection of resources from across the Smithsonian ...

The historic flight of the Wright brothers in 1903 sparked a universal enthusiasm for flying. But as in most areas of life, formidable obstacles and discrimination faced African Americans who had ...

Eleanor Roosevelt had urged the introduction of blacks into the Sojourner Truth Housing Project in Detroit. Now incidentally, the housing project was named after an African American heroine, Sojourner ...