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.

These black soldiers returning from World War I received a hero’s welcome, by blacks and whites alike, in New York City.

Cotton not only ruled in the South, but had a great role in the Northern banking industry, New England factories and in Great Britain.

During slavery, why did free blacks stay in the South?

Seven common myths about the Underground Railroad, and how they have sometimes overwhelmed historical facts.