The BuzzFeed Black History Reading List

In 1971, Omaha Black Panther leaders Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa were sentenced to life in prison for a bombing that killed a local police officer. In the 45 years since, they’ve been fighting for a quieter type of liberation — their own.

In 2013, black and white students from a tiny south Georgia county attended prom together for first time. Was this a big step away from the past or a small aberration in a community doomed to repeat it?

In 1955, an African-American boxer in New Orleans named Joe Dorsey sued the state of Louisiana for the right to fight against white opponents. What started out as a chance to advance his career wound up changing sports and culture in the state forever.

A civil rights fight that was thought to have been eradicated years ago is nevertheless taking place in the entertainment industry. So why is Hollywood still “painting down” stuntpeople?

Gulfside Assembly — the only place where black Americans could visit a coastal beach during Jim Crow — was once known as a civil rights mecca. Just as it was to make a comeback, Hurricane Katrina laid ruin to the retreat, leaving a dedicated few struggling to keep it from fading into historical obscurity.

You may not know his name, but you’ve heard Bernard “Pretty” Purdie play drums. Over five decades, the prolific session musician has backed some of the 20th century’s biggest hits. Now, at 74, he’s ready to take center stage.

In a city wrestling with demographic change, the attack of a poor black man at Whole Foods has come to represent what many black residents fear: Oakland wants them out. “When I moved here, Oakland was one of the few places where blacks had actually realized their own power.”

In 1905, at the dawn of America’s empire under Teddy Roosevelt, a black sailor and a Jewish sailor boxed in a makeshift ring on the deck of a U.S. Navy ship. What was intended to be entertainment for hundreds of idle soldiers instead turned into a tragedy, marking a pivotal, if overlooked, moment in the history of race in the American military.

Craig Anderson was headed home to celebrate his birthday with his partner. Instead, he became the victim of a brutal and violent form of racism that many in Mississippi had thought was long gone.

For decades, students at Spelman — the elite historically black women’s college — have spoken out about instances of sexual assault committed by students from Morehouse College, their unofficial brother school. Now, in the wake of a petition, protests, and a federal investigation, their messages are ringing louder than ever. Why haven’t we heard them?

Born a slave in Georgia in 1849, Thomas Greene Wiggins was one of the first African-American classical performers and composers. Mark Twain once referred to him as an "'angel' who derived his musical abilities from supernatural forces." So why haven't more people heard of him?

Over a decade ago, Cosby gave a speech excoriating poor blacks for not living up to the promise of the civil rights movement. Here’s a look back based on what we know now.

After D.C. resident Patti Hammond Shaw was arrested, she claimed male officers searched her and locked her up with men who allegedly abused and threatened her. This is how she fought to make sure this won’t happen to others.

On realizing that racism isn't confined to America's most maligned — and misunderstood — region. "The South does not have a lockdown on any of the bad qualities for which Northerners make fun of it."

How the embattled, groundbreaking Atlanta college — one of the few HBCUs with black founders — is hoping to go from cautionary tale to redemption story. "Morris Brown cultivated a reputation as an institution that could educate and uplift the most economically and socially disadvantaged black students, only to find itself crippled by financial scandal."

On the history of photography’s inherited bias against dark skin — and how to navigate it. "The absence of our likeness accurately rendered in photographs is one more piece of the construct of white supremacy."

Unraveling the racism and tropes about black male sexuality that led everyone to want a popular college wrestler — until he had HIV. "His persona had no shortage of willing white sex partners...but he is the only one facing the law because of it."

To the cops, Jabbar Gibson was just a low-level drug pusher. But to the residents of a New Orleans public housing complex, he’s the man who rescued them from Hurricane Katrina when no one else would.

The stars and the director of the genre-busting sleeper hit on why the movie still resonates. “I know you don’t smoke weed. I know this. But I’m gonna get you high today. ‘Cuz it’s Friday, you ain’t got no job, and you ain’t got shit to do!”