

Black History Year
PushBlack
Learning your history makes you - and your people - stronger. As Black people, we know we’re often left out of the history books. That media images are skewed. That we need access to experts, information, and ideas so we can uplift our community. Black History Year connects you to the history, thinkers, and activists that are usually excluded from mainstream conversations. You might not agree with everything you hear, but we’re always working toward one goal: uniting for the best interests of Black people worldwide. BHY is produced by PushBlack, the nation’s largest non-profit Black media organization - contact us at BlackHistoryYear.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 17, 2025 • 51min
Critical Race Theory and The Obstruction of Black Education with Dr. Ivory Toldson (Nov 2021)
Education has always mattered to Black people. Our enslaved ancestors risked their lives to learn what white oppressors withheld. Because those oppressors understood the important role knowledge of ones history, one's world, and oneself plays in Black liberation. Hundreds of years have gone by, and throughout them all, white supremacy has continued the work of suppressing Black education. So what can we do about it? In November 2021, Jay sat down with Dr. Ivory Toldosn.
Dr. Toldson is the NAACP's national director of education, innovation, and research and has been a professor at Howard University for 16 years. Learning is the path forward, but we first have to challenge the barriers that prevent us from doing so.
BHY is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company - hit us up at BlackHistoryYear.com and share this with your people! PushBlack exists because we saw we had to take this into our own hands. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at https://BlackHistoryYear.com. Most people do 5 or 10 bucks a month, but everything makes a difference.Thanks for supporting the work. The Black History Year production team includes: Tareq Alani, Patrick Sanders, Leslie Taylor-Grover, William Anderson, Jareyah Bradley, Brooke Brown, Shiavon Chapman, Tabitha Jacobs, Abeni Jones, Briona Lamback, Courtney Morgan, Zain Murdock, Akua Tay, Tasha Taylor, and Darren Wallace. Producing the podcast we have Cydney Smith, who performs our narrative pieces, and Sasha Kai Parker, who also edits the show.. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 16, 2025 • 3min
The First Juneteenth Was Nothing Like You May Think
The crowd erupted into joy at the words of the white man. They were free, he said. But their joy would be short-lived. A beast like slavery wasn’t about to go out with mere words.
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 15, 2025 • 3min
Let’s Settle The ‘Ask’ vs. ‘Ax’ Debate Right Now
Has someone ever corrected you for ‘axing’ instead of ‘asking’? Well, history shows that both are right. Here’s why we should keep speaking like we do.
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 14, 2025 • 3min
How Alice Walker’s Secret Grave Hunting Obsession Changed Black History
Alice Walker is a renowned author. She’s also a grave hunter. In the 1970s, she set out to discover the final resting place of a long lost voice of authentic Blackness. What she found changed history forever. _____________
2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 10, 2025 • 33min
Celebrating Juneteenth in the Carceral State with Ebony Underwood (June 2021)
Juneteenth is a special holiday for Black people - it commemorates when the last of our enslaved ancestors were freed. And yet, many Black people remain in bondage through a new form of slavery that's just as insidious: mass incarceration. On this special episode of BHY, we sit down with Ebony Underwood, social entrepreneur and founder of We Got Us Now, to discuss the significance of Juneteenth and the ongoing struggle for liberation.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 9, 2025 • 3min
The Underground Railroad Was Only One Path To Freedom. Going Further South Was Another
To the North lay freedom, or so many believed. Starvation, exposure to the elements, and especially the threat of recapture still hung heavy over the heads of those who had escaped bondage. But what about escaping even further south?
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 8, 2025 • 3min
3 Methods Behind The Magic Of Black Creativity
Bass filling our ears, bodies dancing to new sounds. Words clipped from the documents that oppressed us, making them our own. The broken patterns of soft, colorful fabric. Our culture is synonymous with experimental creativity. Here are three examples of how.
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 7, 2025 • 3min
The Special Role Kola Nuts Play In Black Spirituality
Beyond being the once-key ingredient in soda, the kola nut has a long history with our people that goes deeper than any sugary drink. It’s a symbol of peace, prayer, and justice.
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.
The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 3, 2025 • 59min
What “Sinners” Gets Right (And Wrong) About the Black South
This isn’t a film podcast. But with the feature film Sinners now available at home, we couldn’t help but unpack its bold take on Southern horror, the moral weight of unspoken histories, and what it means—for the culture—to set a story like this in Mississippi.
In this special episode of Black History Year, Grammy-winning blues musician and actor Chris Thomas King returns, joining scholar, writer, and BHY producer Dr. Leslie Grover to discuss what the film gets right, what it gets wrong, and the blues haunting every frame.
Grab your popcorn—because by the end of the episode, you’ll be asking yourself: Is “Sinners” just a horror flick—or a mirror that makes Black history impossible to ignore?
This podcast is brought to you by PushBlack, the nation’s largest non-profit Black media company. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com. Most folks donate 5 or 10 bucks a month, but truly, anything helps. Thanks for supporting the work.
Cydney Smith, Darren Wallace, and Len Webb, who also edit the show, produce Black History Year with production support from Leslie Taylor-Grover and Brooke Brown. Lilly Workneh is our Executive Producer. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 30, 2025 • 4min
How Henrietta Lacks' Death Changed Medical History
The scientist couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Every other sample of cells he’d seen died quickly in his lab, but these cells, from a poor Black woman, doubled every 24 hours! He had to get more of them – at any cost.
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2-Minute Black History is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.
The production team for this podcast includes Cydney Smith, Len Webb, and Lilly Workneh. Our editors are Lance John and Avery Phillips from Gifted Sounds Network. Julian Walker serves as executive producer." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices