Category: Groundbreakers

United States – President Barack Obama Visits Goree Island

President Obama, the first Black president of the United States visits Goree Island, Senegal, with his wife, First Lady, Michell Obama, and other members of their family. Goree Island is a symbolically important landmark that serves as a reminder of ships bound for America bearing enslaved Africans in shackles. References:.. Read More…

Autographed publicity photo of Josephine Baker. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United States – African Americans in Paris, France

Between the 1920s to 1960s, African American intellectuals such as Richard Wright, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes traveled to Paris to escape the racism and segregation happening in the United States. As a reflection of these travels, in his 1951 essay, I Choose Exile, author and poet Richard.. Read More…

Booker T. Washington. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United States – Booker T. Washington Takes Trip To Europe

Booker T. Washington, an educator, author, and leader in the African American community, takes his first trip to Europe during a leave of absence from his tenure at Tuskegee University. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington describes the release of his cares and burdens lifting at a rate of.. Read More…

W. E. B. Dubois in the office of The Crisis. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United States – W. E. B. Du Bois Visits Europe

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (W. E. B. Du Bois), an American sociologist and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), visits Europe for the first time as a graduate student at the University of Berlin. During this 1892 visit, W. E… Read More…