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Black Heritage Cache

@blackheritagecache.bsky.social

77 followers 39 following 160 posts

Curated by @k-wangking.bsky.social Here to unearth truth, while preserving the treasure trove that is #Blackhistory & the richness of its heritage. If trauma can be passed down, so can joy. https://www.instagram.com/blackheritagecache/

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Nov 22

Black History is a treasure trove still being unearthed. If trauma can be passed down, so can joy. #Blacksky

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · 19d

Looking for some Black literature for your Sunday read?

Read Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Sweat" --

Zora Neale Hurston's Short Story: "SWEAT"

“Sweat stood out both for its artistic accomplishment and its exploration of rural Southern Black life, introducing themes of marital conflict and spiritual consciousness that animate Hurston’s mature fiction”

buff.ly

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Sep 19

Browse through the pages of an original Negro Motorist #GreenBook from 1946. Just imagine how many people who found protection in these pages because of the Black businesses, schools, restaurants, and lodging recorded during travel.

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Aug 18

An advertisement from the 1972 Black Community Survival Conference

Source: NMAAHC

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Aug 14

Between 1894 and 1900, Black men regained political influence in North Carolina when Populists & Republicans formed the integrated Fusionist coalition. It led to the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only successful coup of an elected government in U.S. history.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Aug 3

The Shearer Cottage was the oldest Black-owned inn on the island. The Shearers operated the twelve-room seasonal inn, creating a space of belonging and fellowship for multiple generations of the Black community of Martha's Vineyard.

Ralp Lauren's A Portrait of the American Dream: Oak Bluffs (2025)

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 28

The production competed directly with the most popular and well-funded Broadway shows of its time. We could see ourselves on stage and contribute to its success. Its lasting legacy would build the careers of millions of Black performers and crew members, & foster imaginations through representations

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 28

A 16-year-old Josephine Baker also made history as a performer on the first all-female chorus line on Broadway, through her role in the original run of the musical. This musical helped launch the careers of legends like Hal Johnson, William Grant Still, Florence Mills, Paul Robeson, & Bessie Allison

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 28

Black Love had finally been portrayed on the stage. The production desegregated Broadway audiences. Diverse audiences surged into theaters. The set was minimal, the costumes were hand-me-downs, and it even portrayed negative stereotypes alongside its positive depiction of our community.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 28

Black Broadway was the catalyst for one of the most historically significant and defining eras in Black creativity. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyle, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, Shuffle Along debuted on May 23, 1921, at the 63rd Street Music Hall.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 16

It’s exciting to see the past and the present connect. While we’re holding companies accountable for their DEI dissolutions, Ruggles would boycotted the sale of food products made without slave labor through the Quakers' Free Produce Movement at his grocery store in the 1800s

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 16

The destruction of the bookstore wouldn’t stop Ruggles or weaken his role in the antislavery movement. It actually pushed him in further. His writing and publishing continued and he used his home as a station on the early days of the Underground Railroad. He even helped Frederick Douglass escape!

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 16

David Ruggles opened the 1st Black-owned bookstore in America 191 years ago. This entrepreneur carried abolitionist books & pamphlets, in addition to printing and selling his own. He later added a reading room & a lending library. A mob would destroy the bookstore the following year by arson fire.

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jul 2

Swarthmore College’s Black Studies Program in 1969

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 25

Archibald Motley (1891-1981) painting Chicago’s Black culture and nightlife during the 1930s & 1940s. You’ll see that Motley incorporates the different skin tones in his artwork to show that all shades of Black makeup our community.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 19

Group portraits of the ancestors at the Emancipation Day Celebration on June 19, 1900, held in "East Woods" on East 24th Street in Austin, Texas. #Juneteenth

🗃️ Austin History Center

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 15

Lena Horne and her father, Teddy Horne in 1944

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 13

Completely Random #BlackHistory Fact: Crispus Attucks was 6’2, mulatto, and had knock knees.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 12

We must document our own stories to see past the spectrum of triumph and defeat.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 10

Between 1924 and 1928, Rev. Solomon Sir Jones carried a 16mm camera in his hand, capturing the daily life and experience of over 30 Black towns in Oklahoma. When exploring history, we often focus on historical events and overlook the everyday lives of our ancestors.

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Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Jun 10

RIP the innovating and majestic funk-rock pioneer Sylvester Stewart b.k.a Sly Stone, co-founder and frontman of Sly and the Family Stone. 🕊️

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Apr 20

Happy Easter!

📷 Charles" Teenie" Harris
🗃️ Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Mar 30

89 of those African American medical officers went and served in France during the war.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Mar 30

These HBCUs were actively recruiting alumni to volunteer their medical services. Because of segregation, a new Medical Officers Training Camp needed to be created specifically for us out in Des Moines, Iowa.

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Mar 30

Of the 104 African American medical officers serving in WWI, 60% came from medical schools at 3 HBCUs: Meharry Medical College (34), Howard University Medical School (16), and Leonard Medical School (13). #BlackHistory

Black Heritage Cache @blackheritagecache.bsky.social · Mar 26

In the Fall of 1917, months after the US entered WWI, the army had 639 combat officers, 104 medical officers, and 12 dental officers.