Every verified, rights-cleared work on this floor. Each piece is drawn from a public collection and credited to its source.

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  Frederick Douglass

  United States · 19th century

  Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped slavery to become the foremost abolitionist orator, writer, and statesman of 19th-century America. The most photographed American of his era, he wielded his own portrait to assert Black dignity and humanity against caricature.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Harriet Tubman

  United States · 19th century

  Harriet Tubman (c.1822–1913) escaped slavery and returned repeatedly to lead the enslaved to freedom on the Underground Railroad, later serving as a Union scout, nurse, and suffragist. This Powelson portrait shows her at midlife — rare evidence of her younger years.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  George Washington Carver

  Tuskegee, Alabama, United States · early 20th century

  George Washington Carver (c.1864–1943), agricultural scientist and inventor at the Tuskegee Institute, transformed Southern farming and uplifted Black farmers through crop science and education. Photographed in 1906 by Frances Benjamin Johnston holding the soil at the center of his lifelong work.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Booker T. Washington

  United States · early 20th century

  Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), born into slavery, founded the Tuskegee Institute and became the most influential Black educator and institution-builder of his era, championing vocational education, Black enterprise, and economic self-reliance across the American South.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  W. E. B. Du Bois

  United States · early 20th century

  W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), sociologist, historian, and the first Black American to earn a Harvard doctorate. A founder of the NAACP and author of The Souls of Black Folk, he shaped modern civil rights thought and Pan-African scholarship for a century.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Ida B. Wells

  United States · 19th century

  Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), investigative journalist, educator, and anti-lynching crusader who documented racial violence across the American South and co-founded the NAACP. Her fearless reporting made her a founder of the modern movements for civil rights and Black women.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Sojourner Truth

  United States · 19th century

  Sojourner Truth (c.1797-1883), abolitionist and womens-rights orator born into slavery in New York. This 1864 carte-de-visite, captioned "I sell the shadow to support the substance," shows how Truth sold her own photographs to fund her activism - an early act of self-determined image-making by a formerly enslaved woman.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Paul Laurence Dunbar

  United States · early 20th century

  Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), one of the first African American poets to win national acclaim. The son of formerly enslaved parents, he wrote in both literary English and dialect verse. This portrait served as the frontispiece to his 1905 collection Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Matthew A. Henson

  United States · early 20th century

  Matthew Alexander Henson (1866-1955), African American Arctic explorer and co-discoverer of the geographic North Pole on the 1909 Peary expedition. A skilled navigator, dog-team driver, and Inuktitut speaker, Henson was long denied the recognition given his white peers. This portrait shows him in his Arctic fur suit.

  Source · Library of Congress
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  Toussaint louverture 001

  2009-05-09 00:16

  Toussaint Louverture Creator: Toussaint_louverture_001.jpg : Original uploader was User:Villanueva at hu.wikipedia derivative work: -Strogoff- ( talk ). Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Benjamin Banneker woodcut, age 64

  1795

  Woodcut of Benjamin Bannecker Creator: Unknown author Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Booker T. Washington

  2015-12-17 16:56:40

  Via Library of Congress. See catalog.loc.gov. Booker T. Washington, seated on steps of porch, with wife and two sons. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Toussaint louverture 001

  2007-12-19 11:10:00

  Toussaint Louverture Creator: Original uploader was User:Villanueva at hu.wikipedia. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Sojourner Truth 01

  1864 date QS:P571,+1864-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  carte de visite Creator: Sojourner Truth. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Phillis Wheatley

  1897

  White Side of a Black Subject Creator: Norman B. Wood. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley (c. 1746-1805)

  1798 date QS:P571,+1798-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley (c. 1746-1805). Creator: Anne-Louis Girodet. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Booker T Washington - 1911

  1911

  Booker T. Washington in a poster in 1911. Creator: Unknown photographer, cropped by User:Connormah. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Frederick Douglass (circa 1879)

  circa 1879 date QS:P,+1879-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902

  Frederick Douglass Creator: George Kendall Warren. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Marcus Garvey 1924-08-05

  1924-08-05

  Marcus Garvey , National Hero of Jamaica, full-length, seated at desk Creator: from George Grantham Bain Collection. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Mary McLeod Bethune

  2011-10-23 03:30:56

  General notes: Painting Creator: Betsy Graves Reyneau. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Marcus Garvey Memorial Park

  2007-05-13

  Marcus Garvey Memorial Park, Harlem, New York City Creator: Momos. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Kwame Nkrumah (JFKWHP-AR6409-A)

  1961-03-08

  Kwame Nkrumah during a state visit to the United States Creator: Abbie Rowe. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Kwame Nkrumah on a Soviet stamp (80th anniversary of his birth) 1989 CPA 6101

  1989-08-09

  A USSR stamp, Creator: USSR Post. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

  circa 1905 date QS:P,+1905-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902

  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , composer Creator: Adam Cuerden. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Sojourner Truth 1864 npg 2002 90

  2009-02-06 15:16:23

  Sojourner Truth Mathew Brady Studio Albumen silver print c. 1864 National Portrait Gallery Accession no. NPG.2002.90 Creator: Unknown author Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Portrait of Ira Aldridge, by Taras Shevchenko (1858)

  25 December 1858 date QS:P571,+1858-12-25T00:00:00Z/11

  een Amerikaanse toneelspeler die in Londen en Oost-Europese landen optrad. Potlood tekening, 25-12-1858. Creator: Taras Shevchenko. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley

  1797 date QS:P571,+1797-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  Jean-Baptiste Belley (1747-1805), représentant de Saint Domingue en 1797, Membre de la Convention et député aux Cinq-Cents. Ce portrait est la première représentation d'un homme noir dans la position d'un législateur occidental. Jean-Baptis Creator: Anne-Louis Girodet. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Frederick Douglass with Helen and Eva Pitts

  Unknown date

  Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts and her sister Eva. Creator: Unknown author Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Titus Andronicus - original

  circa 1852 date QS:P,+1852-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902

  Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus . Quote: "He dies upon my scimetar's [ sic ] sharp point, / That touches this my first-born son and heir!" Act 4, sc. 2. Creator: From a daguerreotype by Paine of Islington. Printed by The London Printing and Publishing Company.. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Portrait of Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1745-1799)

  1788 date QS:P571,+1788-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) was one of the earliest musicians of African ancestry in the world of European classical music. Creator: William Ward / After Mather Brown. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Mary McLeod Bethune with a Line of Girls from the School

  1905 date QS:P571,+1905-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  Mary McLeod Bethune was a pioneering American educator and civil rights leader. Born Mary Jane McLeod on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina, the daughter of former slaves, Bethune won scholarships to attend Scotia Seminary in Conc Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Illustration, pyepimanla-histoire, jeudi, août 27, 2009

  1787 date QS:P571,+1787-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

  Joseph de Bologne de Saint-George, dit le chevalier de Saint-George Portrait d'après le tableau réalisé en 1787 par Mather Brown. La gravure de William Ward d'après Mather Brown a été copiée & pastichée moult fois. Creator: Pastiche de la gravure de William Ward (1762–1826) d'après Mather Brown (1761–1831). Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons
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  Benjamin Banneker

  1795

  Benjamin Banneker on his almanac of the year 1795 Creator: Unknown author Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

  Source · Wikimedia Commons