What is the greatest challenge facing African Americans today?
Black leadership crisis
Failing school systems
Racial profiling
Inequality in the workplace
Which Black American has appeared on the cover of TIME most? Find out here.
Browse Past Covers




Search the TIME archive to learn more about how African Americans have shaped the U.S. this century
Flashbacks in Black and White
The U.S. Congress isn't likely to approve reparations for black people,
but pop culture has fallen in love with the idea
January 13, 2003

Hip-Hop Nation
After 20 years: How it's changed America
February 8, 1999

Paradise Found: Toni Morrison
The Nobel Prize changed Toni Morrison's life, but not her art.
January 19, 1998

Africa Rising
A new spirit of self-reliance is taking root among many Africans as they seize control of their destiny.
March 30, 1998

Read more about black history from TIME >>

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Black History: Past and Present


Colin Powell. Duke Ellington. Tiger Woods. Toni Morrison. Your family and friends, your neighbors. Black Americans have helped shape who we are as a nation, and continue to play important roles in fields ranging from education to entertainment. From the painful passage of the civil rights movement to the political ascent of Powell, the links conquests of Woods and the lyricism of Morrison, browse TIME's words and images documenting the American story that is celebrated every February.



 
Which black playwright has won two Pulitzers? Find out here.

More photos:
Writers | Musicians | Athletes | Civil Rights Leaders



 
 From Malcolm X to Alice Walker, TIME lists the must -reads of African American literature and writings. TIME recommends...







Poets Against Slavery in the 1600's and 1700's
A new book shows that antislavery writing was common long before 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'

Color Crosses Over
After years of video apartheid, African American-oriented sitcoms are starting to reach white viewers

Spotlight: Halle Berry
TIME's Christopher John Farley tells us what Halle Berry can learn from 'The Three Musketeers'

America's Best Preacher: T.D. Jakes
Preacher offers solace to shattered souls

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From TIME's issue on the most important Leaders & Revolutionaries of the 20th Century: A profile of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo Essay: What's Race Got To Do With It?
Despite a crime wave, Cincinnati's cops pull back, underscoring the stakes in the conflict over racial profiling




Special Report:
Soul of a Culture
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
A Leader on the Rise




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Alice Walker photo by NOAH BERGER/AP; Duke Ellington and Barbara Jordan photo by AP; Louie Armstrong photo by RON FREHM/AP;
Colin Powell photo by MURAD SEZER/AP and Toni Morrison photo by STEVEN SENNE/AP

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