American Experience | Official Site

The Riot Report | Article

'We are in the worst crisis we have known since the Civil War'

When the city of Detroit went up in flames in 1967, it was the most deadly civil uprising of the century.

Fly Girls | Article

Cornelia Fort

Fort joins the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Service to fly planes from factories to military air bases, and tragically becomes the first American woman to die on active military duty.

Fly Girls | Article

Establishing the Women's Airforce Service Pilots

Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love team up to create the first corps of female pilots to fly for the U.S. Army.

The Fight | Article

The Louis-Schmeling Fights, 1936 and 1938

Joe Louis was the 10-to-1 favorite over the German boxer Max Schmeling before their first bout on June 19, 1936.

The Fight | Primary Source

Joe Louis Tribute

Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Walter "Red" Smith remembered Joe Louis' strength of character in a New York Times column shortly after the boxer's death.

Chicago: City of the Century | Article

The Palmers

Bertha met her future husband while shopping in his store with her mother.

The Telephone | Article

Forgotten Inventors

Inventions include the can opener, blue jeans, frisbee, feather duster, gas mask, oil burner and blood bank.

Influenza 1918 | Article

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and COVID-19

Much has changed since the influenza pandemic of 1918, yet our responses to COVID-19 must still rely on many of the century-old lessons.

The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools | Image Gallery

Not Just a Normal School Yearbook

Photos capture the experience of Leland, Mississippi’s first integrated high school class

JFK | Article

JFK's Early Days

Kennedy grew up in a family defined by wealth, Catholicism, Democratic politics, and patriarchal control.

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy | Article

The Scottsboro Judges

Judge James Edwin Horton Jr. and Judge William Washington Callahan presided over the second trial of the Scottsboro defendants in Decatur, Alabama.

The Gold Rush | Article

The California Gold Rush

The discovery of gold in1848 unleashed the largest migration in United States history and drew people from a dozen countries to form a multi-ethnic society in California.

The Rockefellers | Article

For over 30 years, Rockefeller had applied his uncanny shrewdness, thorough intelligence, and patient vision to the creation of an industrial organization without parallel in the world. The new century found him facing his most formidable rival ever — a 45-year-old woman