This stylish African American couple was captured by photographer Perry Riddle in July 1975 on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. They embody the vibrant and showy fashion trends of the 1970s. The Afro-ed man wears a baby blue three-piece suit with wide lapels and bell bottoms. The woman

This carte de visite depicts Jim Mitchell, an elderly African-American man who once labored as an enslaved person at Mount Vernon, seated in the Washington, D.C. studio of Alexander Gardner. Taken on April 15, 1870, when Mitchell was 75 years old, the photograph shows him wearing

I met Linduh Evangelista while curating of my exhibition "Past Is Present" at @herrongalleries. He contributed an artwork titled 'Elegance Is Refusal,' which we also ended up using on the cover of the Commercial Artisan-designed catalog. Initially a series of abstracted screenprints on craft

This photo, taken in 1903 by Frances Benjamin Johnston, features three African American women at a state fair in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They are dressed in high-necked, frilly blouses with puffed sleeves and long and bell-shaped walking skirts that emphasize their waists, typical

Carlotta Walls, one of the "Little Rock Nine," integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, enduring racism and violence to pursue a quality education. The simplicity of her alphabet print dress and blouse that she wore on September 4, 1957 belies the significance of her

On this day in 1619, traffickers brought the first enslaved Africans to a Virginia colony on the James River. They sold some enslaved people for food and sold others to white enslavers in Jamestown. calendar.eji.org/racial-injusti…

"The 53-year-old artist, who creates pieces celebrating women, is now being featured in an exhibition at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles titled 'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love.'" youtube.com/watch?v=fAaESl…

This Venetian painting, titled "Allegories of the Four Continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, and America," reflects an 18th-century European worldview, with each continent allegorically personified with costumes, cultural symbols, and stereotypes. Asia and Europe are portrayed with

Mattie Frazier, a member of the extended family of the famed Maggie L. Walker, posed elegantly in this studio photograph. As the sister-in-law of Russell Walker, Maggie L. Walker's son, Mattie was connected to a family of pioneering African American entrepreneurs and educators in

Excited to kick off my 'History of Fashion' course at Parsons today! This class has a rich legacy, originally conceptualized by Tim Gunn, but this semester I'm shaking things up by flipping the timeline. historyof.fashion

This group photograph, taken in May 1941 by Charles "Teenie" Harris, captures members of the Chesterfield Girls decked out in full 1940s attire. Photographed in Herron Hill Park in Pittsburgh's Hill District, the women epitomize the fashion of the time, with Arnetta S. Green

Artist Sonya Clark ingeniously crafted this portrait of Madam C. J. Walker from three thousand plastic combs. Walker, born to formerly enslaved parents in Louisiana in 1867, built an empire of black hair-care products and is often credited as the U.S.'s first female self-made

Two young African American men proudly display their freshly styled conks, a popular mid-20th century hairstyle achieved by chemically straightening Afro-textured hair to create sleek, sculpted looks like the pompadours seen here. This process, which required careful handling to

Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), is seen here during a 1924 parade. With his military-style uniform, complete with medals, epaulets, and a feathered bicorn hat, Garvey crafted a public identity that was meant to project authority and

I live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn—often called "Little Caribbean"—where the West Indian Day Parade takes place every year. I attend it annually. In the Anglophone Caribbean, Carnivals traditionally marked the harvest season, unlike pre-Lenten celebrations in the Catholic world.

Join me at the V&A in London on October 11th for a symposium on the global history of a fascinating, yet understudied textile: madras. This event marks the launch of the website for Connecting Threads, a project on which I had the honor of advising. vam.ac.uk/event/YGVBDZm3…

Janett Galloway inherited a light-colored floral skirt from her grandmother, Mary Lizzie, who had kept it hidden in a storage chest for years. This skirt, passed down through five generations of women, traces back to an enslaved ancestor in Macon, Georgia. As a significant family