Each year’s Blackstories, listed alphabetically.
- Black Perkins, Kitty – The designer who made Barbie authentically Black
- Buffalo Soldiers, The – Trailblazers of America’s National Parks
- DeLarverie, Stormé – Stonewall’s self-appointed, solo security detail
- Jennings Graham, Elizabeth – The woman who desegregated NY Transit 100 years before Montgomery
- Stahl, Jesse – Death defying rodeo rider
2024 – New York Stories, Seen Firsthand
- Hammond, Joe “The Destroyer” — Harlem street ball legend
- June, Valerie — Country/folk singer, self-proclaimed fairy woman (Part II)
- Lee, Spike — Creative multi-hyphenate in film and print
- Mendes, Louis — Iconic NYC street photographer (Part II)
- Nelson, Selena — A television treasure at Tiffany’s
2023
- Fisk Jubilee Singers, The — Indomitable HBCU chorus
- Harris, Lucy — Queen of Basketball drafted to the NBA
- Holford, Dr. Mandë — Snail venom medicine woman
- Houston, Larry — Animating maestro of X-Men: The Animated Series
- Jones, Mary — Earliest documented trans person in NYC
- Madame Abomah — Graceful 7-foot giantess
- Meachum, John Berry & The Floating Freedom School — subversive schoolmaster
- Okanlami, Dr. Feranmi — Doctor disabusing disability
- Phipps-Clark, Dr. Mamie — Groundbreaking creator of the “Doll Test”
2022
- Anderson, Jourdon — Eloquent author of a slaveowner’s clapback
- Armstrong, Ellen — Original Black girl magician
- Bacon-Bercey, June — 1st Black meteorologist to storm the industry
- Charmay & Black American Sign Language — Hands that tell history
- Crompton, Kimberly & Jehvan — Life-saving mother & son
- Fairbanks, Mabel — 1st Black woman to break the ice in figure skating
- Fireburn Queens, The — Lady leaders of a Virgin Islands revolt
- German Coast Uprising, The — Largest uprising in US history
- Gilmore, Georgia — Cook who fed the civil rights movement
- Harlem Hellfighters — “Bravest Americans of World War I”
- Hayes, Nyla — Teenage NFT multi-millionaire
- Hillary, Barbara — Continent-hopping octogenarian
- Jackson, Kendall — 1st Black girl to soar to Eagle Scout
- Keckly, Elizabeth — Mary Todd Lincoln’s coveted seamstress
- Kelly, Rikki — Texas’ 1st Black female tequila owner
- Marcus Books — America’s oldest standing Black-owned bookstore
- Miller, Dr. Lila — “Mother of Shelter Medicine”
- Mitchell, Ezekiel — Elite Black bull rider
- Nelson, Kadir — Artist detailing Black Americana
- Ninja, Willi — Legendary ballroom mother of vogueing
- Oscarville, GA & Lake Lanier — Haunted remains of a drowned Black town
- Payton, Philip A. — Father of Harlem, real estate tycoon
- Powell Beane, Vanilla — Hatmaker to the civil rights movement
- Rolle, Dr. Myron — Draft pick turned pediatric neurosurgeon
- Smith-Robinson, Ruby Doris — Dedicated and defiant Freedom Rider
- Taylor, George Edwin — First Black presidential nominee
- Watkins, Jessica — Artemis astronaut & 1st Black woman living on the ISS
- Wood, Henrietta — Wrongfully enslaved woman who sued for freedom
2020
- Amoy Antunet — Social media science kid
- Bell, Changa — Founder of the Black Male Yoga Initiative
- Bentley, Gladys — Harlem’s best nonbinary entertainer
- Black Herman — Money making magician of Harlem
- Black Masking Indians, The — New Orleans Black & Indigenous culture bearers
- Brewer, Tina Williams — Storytelling folk quilt maker
- Brown, Henry “Box” — Daring freedom seeker
- Fleming, Brandon — Creator of the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project
- Ford, Mike — The hip-hop architect
- Garner, Margaret — A dedicated mother with a terrible decision
- Green, Dr. Hadiyah — Compassionate cancer research champion
- HAIR LOVE — Oscar-winning animated anthem to Black traditions
- Hamilton, Mary — The Freedom Rider whose name was Ms.
- Hampton, Fred — The “Black Messiah” martyred by the FBI
- Lampkin, Stephanie — The diversity developer of tech
- Lowe, Ann — Jackie O’s disowned gown maker
- Lucas, Hannah & Charlie — Teenage app creators for everyone who’s notOK
- Montague, Liz — the New Yorker’s first Black cartoonist
- Parks, Gordon — 20th c. photographer of the Black experience
- Pleasant, Mary Ellen — millionaire entrepreneur & Mother of the CA Underground Railroad
- Rogers, Christopher John — Southern fashion designer
- Scott, Hazel — Primetime television host & entertainer
- Scottsboro Boys, The — An “unmitigated tragedy” on a train
- Sepia Magazine — A publication for the people
- Simmons, Lauren — Wall Street’s original “Fearless Girl”
- Sugar Land 95, The — Imperial Sugar’s slaves by another name
- Taylor, Major — The courageous cyclist who broke records & barriers
- Trice, Jack — the NCAA’s unwitting Black martyr
- Van Brittan Brown, Marie — Protective mother of home security
2019
- Abbott, Robert — Black publisher & “mouthpiece of millions”
- Abloh, Virgil — Louis Vuitton’s 1st Black artistic director
- Ash, Aesha — Ballet’s real life Black Swan
- Ashley, Maurice — World’s 1st Black chess grandmaster
- Bath, Dr. Patricia — Barrier-breaking opthalmologist
- Brown, Rev. Dr. Heber — Community wide flock feeder
- Browne, Cheryl — Miss America’s 1st Black contestant
- Buolamwini, Joy — AI superhero for digital equality
- Butler, Octavia — The Grand Dame of Science Fiction & Afrofuturism
- Craft, Ellen and William — A lovers’ conspiracy for freedom
- Dias, Marley — 1,001 books for Black girls from a Black girl
- Gittens, Charles — The U.S. Secret Service’s 1st Black agent
- Green, Nearest — The secret grandaddy of Tennessee whiskey
- Green, Victor — Protector of those Traveling While Black
- Jacobs, Shelby — The man behind scenery of the Space Race
- Jordan, Edouardo — The Black James Beard champion
- Jordan, Louis — Forefather of the modern music video
- Joseph, Frederick — Superhero for urban marginalized kids
- Kaphar, Titus — Artist painting Black figures back into history
- Lucy, Autherine — The girl who turned the tide on Alabama
- Seneca Village (Central Park, NYC) — The diverse town buried under Central Park
- Stanley, Jessamyn — Yoga queen of body liberation
- Stone, Toni — First Lady of the Negro Leagues
- Thompson, Vilissa — Advocate ramping up voices of disabled POC
- Van Der Zee, James — Photographer of the Harlem Renaissance
- Washington, Fredi — Groundbreaking star of “Imitation of Life”
- Wells, Mae and Harrell, Antoinette — Genealogy detective exposing modern-day slavery
- Whitley, Malika — A creative home for homeless kids globally
2017
- Black Wall Street (Greenwood, Tulsa, OK) — Home of an American genocide
- Bridges, Ruby — The little girl who integrated the south
- Burrell, Tom — Advertising’s barrier-breaking Black man
- Calloway, Blanche — Cab’s trendsetting older sister
- Cleveland, Pat — World’s 1st Black supermodel
- Dabiri, John — The bio-engineer with heart for jellyfish
- Eaton, Rosanell — North Carolina voting rights nonagenarian
- Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana — Street artist resisting smiling
- Fenton, Dr. Andre — Neural scientist navigating the mind
- Girma, Haben — Dead-blind Harvard Law graduate & disability advocate
- Hayden, Dr. Carla — The librarian protecting our right to know
- Howard, Michelle — A Black woman in (Naval) command
- Johnson, Marsha P. — Stonewall’s first shot for the LGBTQ
- Judge, Ona — Martha Washington’s runaway
- Kittles, Rick — Pioneer of ancestry research
- Mack, Brooklyn — Ballet’s barrier-breaking male lead
- McMillon, Joi & Young, Bradford — Black vision behind the lens
- Micheaux, Oscar — The 20th century’s defining Black filmmaker
- Montague, Raye — The hidden figure of naval technology
- Moss, Vince & Vance — Twin doctors operating behind enemy lines
- Nash, Diane — The unflinching face of civil rights
- Ormes, Jackie — Drawing Black girls into comics and culture
- Price, Leontyne — The Black female lead modernizing opera
- Rustin, Bayard — The angelic troublemaker of the marginalized
- Sifford, Charlie — The PGA’s 1st Black member
- Stringfield, Bessie — The motorcycle queen of messages
- Wereth 11, The — Hidden heroes of WWII
- Wiley, Kehinde — Artist reimagining Black people as classical masterpieces
THE AMERICAN BLACKSTORY 