UN declares colonial peoples’ right to independence

Writers and artists from Africa and the diaspora gathered to debate colonialism, culture, and Black identity. The congress made cultural production a field of anticolonial struggle and built...

Ghana’s independence from British colonial rule became a landmark for African and diasporic liberation movements. Nkrumah’s government welcomed Pan-African organizing and framed sovereignty as part of...

The conference gathered anticolonial parties and movements from across the continent, including organizations still fighting colonial rule. Its resolutions demanded independence and solidarity,...

People protested pass laws that controlled Black movement under apartheid. Police killed 69 people and injured many others. The massacre made apartheid a sharper international issue and linked...

Nigeria gained independence after British colonial rule. The new state entered international diplomacy as a major African polity, while its societies continued to reckon with the political and...

Jamaica became independent after centuries of plantation slavery and British colonial rule. Independence changed sovereignty but did not itself undo land concentration, racial hierarchy, or economic...

Thirty-two independent African states signed the OAU Charter in Addis Ababa. The organization supported decolonization and continental cooperation; its creation also gave African states a collective...

More than 200,000 people gathered to demand civil and economic rights. The march connected racial equality to jobs, housing, and labor, and drew on a longer Black freedom struggle against slavery’s...

The act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment and authorized federal enforcement. It followed decades of organizing by Black communities and allies; legal reform did not by...

The act targeted discriminatory barriers that had denied Black citizens the vote, especially in the South. Its passage followed sustained local organizing and state violence against voting-rights...