Black Heritage Travel | Black Festivals | Black Vacations

Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light

“J’ai deux amours: Two loves have I, my country and Paris.”
– Josephine Baker

“In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city — on the Right Bank and the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les misérables, and knew all kinds of people, from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Neuilly. This may sound extremely unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen.”
– James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

Paris’s reputation as a colorblind society attracted thousands of African Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests to the French capital, starting just after World War I and the beginning of the Jazz Age, and lasting through the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930′s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950′s and 60′s. Prominent African Americans such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ada “Bricktop” Smith, Sidney Bechet, Josephine Baker, Henry O. Tanner, Miles Davis lived, worked, and played in Paris, making significant contributions to the city’s legacy of achievement in art and literature and numerous other fields. It also, however, included students, entrepreneurs, athletes, housewives, soldiers, fashion models and journalists, who crossed the Atlantic in search of adventure, the pursuit of economic opportunities, and to seek refuge from racism that was so prevalent at nearly all levels of society back home.

Photo: Clockwise from upper left: Josephine Baker, the Eiffel Tower, James Baldwin, another Baker shot, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker. Courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle/George Russell.

Pan African Film & Arts Festival, Los Angeles

The Pan African Art and Film Festival (PAFF) is considered America’s largest and most prestigious Black arts and film festival, regularly attracting over 200,000 visitors and holding annual screenings of more than 100 films made by and/or about people of African descent from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Europe [...]

Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home, Atlanta GA

Born January 15, 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the first 12 years of his life in this modest Queen Anne-style home located in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta. Furnished with both original or period reproduction pieces, as well as personal items of the family, the house has been restored to its appearance [...]

Hammond House Museum & Resource Center for African American Art, Atlanta GA

Established in 1988 with the purchase of the art collection and historic home of the late Dr. Otis T. Hammonds, Hammonds House Museum and Resource Center of African American Art is dedicated to the mission of preserving the work and heritage of African-American artists through educational outreach programs, utilizing local and national artists, scholars, critics [...]

ZORA Festival of the Arts & Humanities | Eatonville, FL

Taking place the last week of January each year in Eatonville, Florida, this multi-day, multi-disciplinary event celebrates the life and work of 20th century writer, folklorist and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston; her hometown, Eatonville, the nation’s oldest incorporated African American municipality and the cultural contributions people of African ancestry have made to the United States [...]

Lincolnville/St. Augustine, FL

Photo Credit: John Reidy St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest city in the United States, and until 1964, one of the most segregated. A dentist and NAACP representative named Robert Hayling from the historic subdivision of Lincolnville initiated the protest actions that eventually ended discrimination in the old city. Lincolnville, established in 1866, was the [...]

African Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC

Photo Credit: Old Salem (www.oldsalem.org) Built in 1823, the African Moravian Church (“Log Church”) was the only known structure in the immediate area constructed specifically as a place of worship for people of African descent, enslaved and free. The white Female Missionary Society of the Moravian Church in Salem financed the project, and African Americans [...]

And Still We Rise: Our Journey Through African American History and Culture

This long-term exhibition housed in the Charles W. Wright Museum of African American History serves as the central experience of our museum. The 22,000 square-foot exhibition space contains more than 20 galleries that allow patrons to travel over time and across geographic boundaries. The journey begins in prehistoric Africa, the cradle of human life. Guests [...]

Beck Cultural Exchange Center | Knoxville, TN

Located within easy walking distance of the famed Alex Haley Statue at Haley Heritage Square, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center features the history of African Americans in Knoxville and East Tennessee from the late 1800′s to the present through photographs, newspapers, biographies, audio and video recordings, books and artwork. [Collections at the Beck Cultural Exchange [...]