Category: Migration

Statute of Gaspar Yanga

Mexico – Yanga, First Black Town In North America

Yanga is a municipality located in the southern area of the State of Veracruz. In 1932 it was renamed after Gaspar Yanga, the cimarron leader who in 1609 resisted an attack by Spanish forces trying to regain control of the area. Despite the enslaving and indentured labor of a high.. Read More…

Caribbean – HMT Empire Windrush Arrives In The United Kingdom

On 22 June 1948, the former German cruise liner HMT Empire Windrush arrived in the United Kingdom at Tilbury Docks, Essex, carrying passengers from the West Indies. The following day, in what has become a landmark in the history of modern Britain, Caribbean migrants from countries including Jamaica, Bermuda, Trinidad,.. Read More…

Three African American women in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance, ca. 1925. Photo Credit: © Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

United States – Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual revival of African American art and literature centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, in the early 20th-century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. At the time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after The New Negro, a.. Read More…

United States – The Great Migration

The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from about 1916 to 1970. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many Black people headed north, where they.. Read More…

Jamaica – Marcus Garvey, The Black Star Line

The Black Star Line was a steamship company completely owned, operated, and financed by people of African descent. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), a Jamaican national and master propagandist, was the leader of this venture. He was a Black nationalist and a leader of the Pan-Africanism movement which sought to unify and.. Read More…

Allensworth's restored buildings now occupy Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. Photo Credit: © Bobak Ha'Eri via Wikemedia Commons.

United States – Allensworth, California

Allensworth is the first town in California to be founded, financed, and governed by Black people. The first group of settlers was a group of men led by Colonel Allen Allensworth who was the highest-ranking Black officer in the U.S. Army when he retired in 1906. The town fell on.. Read More…

1964 Aerial view of Africville in Nova Scotia, Canada. Photo Credit: © Ted Grant / Library and Archives Canada.

Canada – Africville, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Africville was an African-Canadian village located just north of Halifax and founded in the mid-18th century. The City of Halifax demolished the once-prosperous seaside community in the 1960s in what many said was an act of racism. The mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality apologized for the action in 2010… Read More…