Black American History
This author wrote the 1937 classic novel set in Eatonville, Florida.
What is Zora Neale Hurston
This term describes revolts, sabotage, and suicides aboard slave ships while crossing the ocean between West Africa and the Americas.
"Cradle of Humankind," this continent is where all human life and original human migration originated.
what is africa
Unique to the Gullah Geechee culture, this red rice dish cooked with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and smoked sausage directly links Southern American cooking to West African Jollof.
what is red rice
Enslaved Africans used these religious folk songs—such as "Steal Away" and "Wade in the Water"—both for spiritual comfort and as coded communication for escape on the Underground Railroad.
what is negro spirituals
Published from 1936 to 1966 by Harlem postal worker Victor Hugo Green, this annual travel guidebook helped Black travelers navigate Jim Crow segregation by listing safe hotels, gas stations, and restaurants nationwide.
Green Book
Beginning with a slave uprising in 1791 and led by figures like Toussaint Louverture, this historic revolution resulted in the establishment of the world's first independent Black republic in 1804.
What is the Haitian Revolution?
West African person keeps oral history, family lineages, and ancient traditions alive through speech and song are known by this title.
what is griot/storyteller
Tracing its roots back to the West African dish Soupikandja, this signature dish gets its name from the West African word for okra and typically combines a dark roux with the "Holy Trinity" of vegetables, meats, and seafood.
Often carried in Hoodoo and Southern folk magic, this small flannel drawstring bag contains herbs, roots, bones, or coins to bring luck, protection, or money to the owner
what is a mojo bag
Passed between 1865 and 1870, this set of three constitutional amendments officially abolished slavery, granted equal protection and citizenship, and extended voting rights to Black men.
What are the Reconstruction Amendments (or the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments)
Enslaved Africans along the West African coast frequently engaged in this practice—refusing food or using specialized jump-nets on ship decks—to deny captors their labor and profits.
what is passive resistance
Concentrated heavily in Louisiana and the American South, this folk spiritual practice blends African herbalism, rootwork, Christian prayer, and ancestral veneration for protection and healing.
what is hoodoo
Found across the Afro-Caribbean and Latin America under names like mofongo, mangú, and fufu, this traditional dish involves boiling and mashing this starchy fruit with garlic, oil, or pork skin.
What is plantain
this famous West African Adinkra symbol depicts a bird looking backward while carrying an egg in its mouth, representing the importance of reaching back to fetch wisdom from the past
What is Sankofa
During this 1861–1865 national conflict, thousands of enslaved people interpreted the fighting as a divine fulfillment of Biblical Exodus, using spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" to signal emancipation.
what is civil war
In linguistics, an accent refers strictly to pronunciation, whereas this broader term includes unique vocabulary and grammar used by a specific region or group.
what is dialect
Known historically as the Gold Coast, this modern West African nation was the home of the Ashanti and Fante peoples, who brought Akan culture and stories of Anansi the Spider to the Americas.
what is Ghana
Brought to the Americas via the Transatlantic trade, this fibrous West African pod vegetable—known locally as gumbo in Angola—became a primary thickening agent for Southern stews and Caribbean soups.
what is okra
Known as the "Voodoo Queen of New Orleans," this 19th-century free woman of color was a renowned practitioner, herbalist, and spiritual leader whose tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 remains a site of pilgrimage today.
Who is Marie Laveau
In May and June 1921, a wealthy, thriving Black business district in Oklahoma known as "Black Wall Street" was attacked and destroyed by white mobs in this tragic historical event
What is the Tulsa Race Massacre
Derived from the Latin phrase meaning "from the beginning," this adjective or noun refers to the indigenous human inhabitants who lived in a land or region prior to colonizers.
what is aboriginal
Enslaved Africans brought this popular stringed instrument originally made from a dried gourd to the Americas, which became a staple in American folk and country music.
what is banjo
this smoking and seasoning technique uses allspice (pimento) and scotch bonnet peppers to preserve and flavor meat over green wood fires.
what is jerk
Emerging in North American praise houses when enslaved Africans were forbidden from using drums, this ecstatic worship practice combined rhythmic foot-stamping, hand-clapping, and counter-clockwise movement.
what is Ring shout