Shows / Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast brings history to life. Moving beyond daily facts, we explore the full spectrum of Black history—from groundbreaking African American achievements to untold stories across Africa and the global diaspora. Unearth forgotten historical figures, celebrate enduring legacies, and connect the past to the present. Subscribe now! figures, celebrate enduring legacies, and connect the past to the present. Subscribe now! movements across Africa and the global…
Episodes
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
A Word From the Porch
No story this time — just a plain word from Mr. Black History. The show is changing its rhythm: the Southern Underground Railroad every Monday, The Taking…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Taking: The Coffle - Stolen in Chains
Last episode named the sellers. This one walks the road they walked: the coffle — the chained line marched from Africa's inland country to the sea. Mr. Black…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Taking: The Slatee & Africa Before Pan-Africanism
Last episode named the white men who chose. This one names the men in the middle: the African merchants, kings, and brokers who sold captives to the ships —…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: How The Word Traveled
You've heard the story: enslaved people in Texas didn't know they were free for two and a half years until Juneteenth. Felix Haywood, who was enslaved in…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Taking: Toubob - White Men Who Chose Greed
Last episode we stood in the home they took us from. Now meet the men who came to take it. West Africans had a word for them: toubob. This episode asks one…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Taking: Home - Who We Were Before the Ships
Thirty-five episodes, and we do not start with the ships. We start with home. Before the taking, there was a continent of two thousand languages: Mansa Musa…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Taking: My Blood is the Map
Before Episode One, meet the man telling the story. Mr. Black History took a DNA test, and what Ancestry sent back wasn't a pie chart — it was the map of this…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Green Book Mindset
How do you travel with dignity through a country whose laws say you are less than human? We start with the terror on the road: sundown towns, legally refused…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Word: Griots, Signifying, the Dozens & AAVE
They said our speech was broken English. The proof says otherwise. We start in West Africa with the jali — the keepers of the word — who carried the Epic of…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: Louisiana's Hidden Nations
The Great Dismal Swamp hid people who vanished without a trace. The Louisiana bayou hid people who refused to vanish at all. In the 1780s, in the wetlands…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Chef That Got Away: Hercules Posey
The Chef Who Got Away: Hercules Posey — Food Origins He was America's first celebrity chef. He ran George Washington's kitchen, fed presidents and diplomats…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Louis Armstrong: Satchmo in Ghana
Satchmo in Ghana — Black People in Music What happens when the trumpet that invented American music goes home? May 1956. Louis Armstrong — Satchmo, the genius…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: The Great Dismal Swamp
Before there was an Underground Railroad running north, there was a country running inward. Deep in the Great Dismal Swamp - a million acres of black water and…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Who Owns The Music? From Prince to Beyonce to Today
A $100 million record deal. A man who erased his own name to win back his work. A woman who built her own company so the work never left her hands. This…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Real McCoy - Elijah McCoy
A certified engineer gets hired to shovel coal. He builds a small metal cup anyway - and changes the railroad industry forever. This week, Mr. Black History…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Chef Who Taught America to Eat - James Hemings
Before mac and cheese was America's comfort food, it was James Hemings's French training on a plate. Enslaved at Monticello, summoned to Paris at nineteen…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Sister Rosetta Thorpe - The Godmother of Rock and Roll
Sister Rosetta Tharpe invented rock and roll — and history erased her from it. Before Elvis, before Chuck Berry, a Black gospel woman from Cotton Plant…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: The War America Fought Against Black Freedom: Negro Fort, the Black Seminoles, and the Letter That Survived
In 1816, a single cannonball wiped out a free Black town in Spanish Florida - and it was ordered from the top of the U.S. government. This episode of Sankofa…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Mutual Aid Nation: Susu, Black Wall Street, Mound Bayou & Black Banks
What did we build in the fifteen years we were actually free? In this episode, Mr. Black History traces the mutual aid nation — the Black economic world built…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
I Am Sam Cooke
This story is about Sam Cooke and how Black talent is constantly exploited. The Intellectual Property of Black artists is the most hunted Black business. This…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
We Were Never Just Slaves: Maroons, Queen Nzinga & the Haitian Revolution
Resistance ran a whole spectrum — from a newspaper on a cabin wall to a republic in the Caribbean. In this episode of Sankofa Chronicles, Mr. Black History…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: The Seminole Alliance
Inside the Seminole Nation stood Black towns — free, armed, and organized. In this episode of Sankofa Chronicles: The Southern Underground Railroad, Mr. Black…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Hush Harbors: Secret Worship, the Exodus Story & Nat Turner
Enslaved men and women risked whippings and death to pray in secret. In the swamps and thickets of the antebellum South, they built hidden worship spaces…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
They Banned The Drum, So We Became the Drum: The Stono rebellion & How Black America Invented American Music
What do you do when they take your drum? You become the drum yourself. In 1739, twenty Kongolese men marched out of Charleston shouting one word: Liberty. They…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Play Cousins: How Black Kinship Is Different
Why does everybody in the Black community have a play cousin? In this episode of Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast, Mr. Black History traces the…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Technology of Survival: How Enslaved Africans Built Carolina's Rice Empire
Enslaved Africans weren't brought to America just for labor — they were imported because of their knowledge. In this episode of Sankofa Chronicles, Mr. Black…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: The Women Who Mapped It
The enslaved Black women who mapped the Underground Railroad to Mexico — the intelligence network history forgot. They never ran. But without them, nobody made…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Before The White Jesus: How Africans Brought God With Us | Sankofa Chronicles
Did Black people have God before we had the Bible? Yes. And we can prove it. In this premiere episode of Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast, host Mr…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The 15: How Black Jockeys Built and Won the First Kentucky Derby
13 of the 15 jockeys in the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875 were Black men. Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Derbies. So why can't you name one? In this…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Faizon Brandon: The Kid From Greensboro That Made History
Youngest QB in Tennessee history is US. 18-year-old Faizon Brandon (Greensboro, NC) just made history in Knoxville as the youngest starter ever for the Vols…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: Fort Mose - Part 2 - Francisco Menendez
He was born near the Gambia River around 1704. Captured as a boy. Enslaved in South Carolina. Escaped during the Yamasee War. Sold again. Baptized. Became…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: Fort Mose Part 1
Episode 3, Part 1: "Fort Mose: 1738 - The Town" Before Harriet Tubman, before the Underground Railroad ran north, enslaved people were escaping south to…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
September 11th: Leroy W. Homer Jr - Courage in the Sky
SANKOFA CHRONICLES: A Black History Podcast Ep. — LeRoy W. Homer Jr. - Courage in the Sky On September 11, 2001, First Officer LeRoy W. Homer Jr. was in the…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Black Whalers of Alaska: Before America Knew Alaska Existed
A Black man at the wheel of a ship, steering through Arctic ice off Alaska — decades before Alaska was America. Black History, Alaska History, Whaling History…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Tallest Black Monument in America Is in a Tiny Texas Town | Kendleton's $10M Miracle
What if we told you the tallest African American heritage monument in the entire United States is in a tiny town of 400 people an hour outside Houston? This…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Black Town Buried Under Central Park | Seneca Village
Central Park is a crime scene with really good landscaping. Before the meadows and lakes, there was Seneca Village — founded in 1825 as the largest community…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad: The Spanish Offer
Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast Season 2, Episode 2: "The Spanish Offer" Eleven people sail from Carolina toward Spanish Florida in 1687. A boat, a…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
September 6 Black History: Douglass, Bolden & Why Drums Were Banned
This Day in Black History September 6: How the 1740 ban on African drums led to jazz, plus Frederick Douglass 1848 & Rafer Johnson 1960. On September 6th…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
September 5 in Black History: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig & Léopold Sédar Senghor Becomes President of Senegal
September 5th isn't on most calendars — but it should be. On this date in Black history, two Black writers on two different continents picked up a pen and…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Peekskill 1949: When They Tried to Kill Paul Robeson's Concert
On September 4, 1949, 20,000 people showed up to hear the most famous Black man in America sing - and a mob tried to kill them for it. This is the story of…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
September 3rd - Four Times They Defined Our Freedom, And Four Times We Rewrote It
Why does America celebrate July 4th but ignore September 3rd? Because July 4th is the advertisement, September 3rd is the contract — and Article 7 says they…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Remembering Pierre Damas Bel
He was 20. Honors student. Junior ROTC lieutenant. Varsity soccer player. Texas Roadhouse server. Future neuroscientist. Son. Pierre Damas Bel came from Haiti…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
September 1st in Black History - Daniel "Chappie" James Jr.
On September 1, 1975, Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. was promoted to four-star general in the U.S. Air Force — the first Black American to reach that rank in any…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
August 31, 1962: Fannie Lou Hamer Tries to Vote
This Day in History: On August 31, 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer and seventeen neighbors boarded a bus in Ruleville, Mississippi, and rode to the Sunflower County…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southern Underground Railroad
They taught you the Underground Railroad only ran NORTH. That map was a lie by omission. In the premiere of our 28-episode series, we correct a 125-year-old…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Trailer: Southern Underground Railroad
About this trailer: The map you learned in school was a lie by omission. Welcome to The Southern Underground Railroad - a 28-episode, 31-week series from…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Jim Crow's Legal Blueprint: Breaking Down Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1896, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that gave racial segregation the full weight of American law. In this episode, we go deep on Plessy v…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Southbound Underground Railroad to Mexico
The Underground Railroad ran south to Mexico. Black Seminoles, Mascogos & Mexico's Black president who abolished slavery. In 1829, Afro-Mexican President…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Land Was Citizenship. A House Was A Ballot.
Black history podcast: Weeksville Brooklyn, the free Black town with land ownership, doctors & schools that America forgot. From James Weeks buying ballots…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Great Land Give-Back: How America Promised 40 Acres and Repossessed the Whole Deal
Black history podcast exposes Forty Acres and a Mule, Special Field Order No. 15, and the Reconstruction land theft that launched the Black American wealth gap…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Black Surgeon Who Fixed America's Heart (And Got Written Out of the Recovery)
Daniel Hale Williams, a black surgeon, performs one of the world's first successful open-heart surgeries in 1893, inside a Chicago hospital he built himself…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Amendment They Gutted
The 15th Amendment promised Black men the right to vote in 1870. Within one generation, Southern legislators reduced Black voter registration from hundreds of…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Blood Allies - The Honest Telling of John Brown
I could live for the slave, but he could die for him." — Frederick Douglass One white man descended the gallows on December 2, 1859, with more clarity than…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Special Episode: Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson | Read in Full In August 1791, a 59-year-old free Black mathematician and astronomer named Benjamin Banneker sat…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Other Black Wall Streets
You know Tulsa. This episode is about Rosewood. In January 1923, a white mob burned a thriving Black town in Levy County, Florida to the ground over seven days…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Sharecropping - The Crop Lien Trap
Emancipation gave Black Americans legal freedom and nothing else. No land. No capital. No access to credit on fair terms. What it gave them instead was the…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The General They Erased - William Harvey Carney
William Harvey Carney charged a Confederate fortress through gunfire, took multiple bullets, held the Union flag upright while bleeding from four wounds, and…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
The Girl From Harlem - Patricia Bath
On August 15, 1959, the New York Age spotlighted a sixteen-year-old girl from Harlem who "displays unusual interest in scientific research." Her name was…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Joan Little and the Ice Pick
August 15, 1975: Joan Little Washington, North Carolina. 1974. A 20-year-old Black woman is in Beaufort County Jail on a charge that shouldn't have been a…
- Sankofa Chronicles: A Black History Podcast
Black Veterans After WWII
Everyone remembers V-J Day. But nobody remembers what happened to the Black veterans who came home. On August 14, 1945, President Truman announced Japan's…