What is Black history and culture? The story of an enslaved people who freed themselves. The sounds of poetry, oratory, and music. A long parade of workers, soldiers, artists, musicians, scholars, athletes, judges, and politicians; men and women peacefully marching right into the centers of political power. That is the story I see on Wikimedia Commons, much more than 27 images can illustrate.

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  Slave dance, 1780s
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  Head of a Negro by John Singleton Copley, c, 1777
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  The Rev. Absalom Jones painted by Raphael Peale, 1810
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  Jack, 1850
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  Dred Scott, c.1857
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  The Bone Player by William Sidney Mount, 1857
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  Whipped Peter, c. 1863
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  Gordon, soon after he escaped slavery by entering Union lines, 1863
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  Flag of the 22nd Regiment, United States Colored Troops with the motto Sic Semper Tyrannis, 1865
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  Sojourner Truth, 1870

External videos
West End Blues, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five

External videos
Stormy Weather, Lena Horne

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  African American families watch boats on the Suwannee River c 1950
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  Six year old Ruby Bridges desegregating a school in New Orleans with the protection of US marshals, 1960

External videos
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised , Gil Scott-Heron

External audio
March on Washington, 15 hours of radio coverage, 8/28/1963, Educational Radio Network[1]
Dr. King's speech begins at 1:30, 8/28/1963, Educational Radio Network[2]

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  Malcolm X, 1964
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  Thurgood Marshall, 1956, by Betsy Graves Reyneau

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  Jim Brown, 1959
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  Roberto Clemente, 1966
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  Bill Russell guards Wilt Chamberlain, 1969

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  Sergeant Margaret Herrera and First Lady Michelle Obama, 2009
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  Ruby Bridges and President Barack Obama view the painting The Problem We All Live With, 2011