Dr. Martin Luther King addressing some 2,000 people on April 3rd, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Raise Up, a sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas, on the grounds of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy, the site demands a reckoning with with the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror.

<p><a href="http://www.drdainarameyberry.com/">Daina Ramey Berry</a> is the Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a scholar of the enslaved and the award-winning author/editor of <a href="http://www.drdainarameyberry.com/books">books on slavery</a> including <em>The Price for Their Pound of Flesh, the Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation</em>. Follow her on twitter @DainaRameyBerry.</p>


Daina Ramey Berry

Daina Ramey Berry is the Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a scholar of the enslaved and the award-winning author/editor of books on slavery including The Price for Their Pound of Flesh, the Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation. Follow her on twitter @DainaRameyBerry.

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HISTORY

<p>America’s Founding Fathers decided that one elected civilian—the U.S. president—would lead the executive branch of the federal government, a governmental structure that has remained in place for more than 200 years.</p>


U.S. Presidents

<p>Slavery was widely practiced throughout the ancient world, and in the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, which helped propel the United States into the Civil War.</p>


Slavery

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">African Americans have played a central role in shaping U.S. history. From slavery and its abolition to the Great Migration, the civil rights movement and military, scientific, cultural and political achievements, explore key moments, milestones and figures in Black History.</div>
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Daina Ramey Berry

Stories

How Sally Hemings and Other Enslaved People Secured Precious Pockets of Freedom

‘Why Did They Hate Us?’: Explaining the Lynching Memorial to My Son

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Speech