Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describes the man who inspired his 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro series.

A report shows too few U.S. high-schoolers know about the Civil Rights movement.

Robert Smalls made a daring sea escape during the Civil War and went on to serve five terms in Congress.

As a literary scholar and cultural historian who has spent a lifetime searching out African Americans' lost, forgotten and otherwise unheralded tales, I was honored to serve as a historical consultant on Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave," most certainly one of the most vivid and authentic portrayals of slavery ever captured in a feature film.

Find out who came up with this promise to freed slaves after the Civil War, and how it fell through.