Racism and The Black American Experience: Documents Regarding Black Americans

"The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

There are four pillars upon which the NMAAHC stands:
1.It provides an opportunity for those who are interested in African American culture to explore and revel in this history through interactive exhibitions

2.It helps all Americans see how their stories, their histories, and their cultures are shaped and informed by global influences

3.It explores what it means to be an American and share how American values like resiliency, optimism, and spirituality are reflected in African American history and culture

4.It serves as a place of collaboration that reaches beyond Washington, D.C. to engage new audiences and to work with the myriad of museums and educational institutions that have explored and preserved this important history well before this museum was created.

The NMAAHC is a public institution open to all, where anyone is welcome to participate, collaborate, and learn more about African American history and culture. In the words of Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Museum, “there are few things as powerful and as important as a people, as a nation that is steeped in its history.”

An extensive guide to a variety of resources covering many aspects of Black American life from an historical perspective to today's events.

"We sponsor a variety of outreach programs, research projects, and collections. Explore them here."
This provides a remarkable array of sources on Black American research.

"Founded in 1996, The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) is an innovative think tank that connects academics, activists and policy-makers to promote efforts to dismantle structural inequality. We utilize new ideas and innovative perspectives to transform public discourse and policy. We promote frameworks and strategies that address a vision of racial justice that embraces the intersections of race, gender, class, and the array of barriers that disempower those who are marginalized in society. AAPF is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally."

"Founded in 1981, the University of Virginia's Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies is named in honor of native Virginian Carter Godwin Woodson. Born in 1875 in Buckingham County to parents who were formerly enslaved, Woodson went on to earn a PhD in History at Harvard University in 1912, only the second African-American to receive a Harvard doctorate, his predecessor being the eminent scholar, W.E.B. DuBois. Woodson was instrumental in bringing professional recognition to the study of African-American history during a period when most historians held the opinion that African Americans were a people without history. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 (later to be re-named the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) and its scholarly journal, The Journal of Negro History (now the Journal of African-American History), in 1916. Under his leadership, Negro History Week (now Black History Month) was inaugurated in the United States as an annual celebration of African-American achievement."