This almanac is devoted to illustrating and demystifying the moving, difficult, and often lost history of black life in America. A legacy of pride, struggle, and triumph spanning more than 400 years is presented through a mix of biographies (including 500 influential figures), little-known or misunderstood historical facts, enlightening essays on significant legislation and movements, and 150 rare photographs and illustrations.

The world they inherited -- "Moving like a whirlwind" : Lucy Craft Laney, activist educator -- "The best secondary school in Georgia" : building the Haines Institute culture -- "Ringing up a school" : Mary McLeod Bethune's impact on Daytona Beach -- "Show some daylight between you" : Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the schooling experience of Memorial Palmer Institute graduates, 1948-1958 -- "Telling some mighty truths" : Nannie Helen Burroughs, activist educator and social critic -- "The masses and the classes" : women's friendships and support networks among school founders -- Passing into hi

Did you know that eighty-eight years before Rosa Parks's historic protest, a courageous black woman in Charleston kept her seat on a segregated streetcar? What about Robert Smalls, who steered a Confederate warship into Union waters, freeing himself and some of his family, and later served in the South Carolina state legislature? In this inspiring collection, historian Damon L. Fordham relates story after story of notable black South Carolinians, many of whose contributions to the state's history have not been brought to light until now.

In 1938 Baltimore businessman Joseph Cambria funded the construction of a new minor league baseball park in Greenville, South Carolina. It became known as Meadowbrook Park, and for the next 34 years, it was home to a scrapbook full of sacred baseball memories, including the day Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig came to town, a legendary tape-measure homerun hit by Ted Williams, and a game in which Mickey Mantle went five for five and signed hundreds of autographs for local fans. An impressive list of more than 40 Hall of Famers appeared at the historic park.

The ultimate celebration of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), this first-of-its-kind illustrated anthology is tailor-made for devoted alumni, aspiring applicants, recent graduates, and more.