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SERIES 1 · THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

Series 1 · Complete Archive

Explore people and objects across Black history. Start anywhere, or follow the collection by date.

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115,761 matching cards · 24 cards per page

BIOGRAPHYPortrait not availableExplore the life, work and source references.
BIOGRAPHY
Music

Charlie Parker

1920–1955

Nicknamed Bird, Parker's dazzling speed and harmonic invention helped launch bebop in the 1940s and changed the direction of modern jazz.

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COLLECTION RECORDImage not availableExplore the catalog description and source record.
ARCHIVE RECORD
Historical photographs & documents

"Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcast" aired on WKCR NY

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FROM THE SOURCE CATALOG

Cataloged as “"Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcast" aired on WKCR NY” (Audio; Audio cassette).

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and CultureCatalog sova.nmaahc.a2012.79.av_ref123
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BIOGRAPHY
Sports

Charlie Parks

1917–1987

Charles Ederson Parks (June 19, 1917 – September 13, 1987) was an American Negro league baseball catcher in the 1930s and 1940s. A native of Chester, South Carolina, Parks made his Negro leagues debut for the New York Black Yankees in 1938. He played with…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Peete

1929–1956

Charles Peete (February 22, 1929 – November 27, 1956) was an American professional baseball player. The reigning 1956 batting champion of the Triple-A American Association, who received a one-month, 23-game trial with the 1956 St. Louis Cardinals of Major…

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BIOGRAPHY
Business & Enterprise

Charlie Phillips

1944–

Ronald Phillips (born 22 November 1944), better known as Charlie, also known by the nickname Smokey, is a Jamaican-born restaurateur, photographer, and documenter of black London. He is now best known for his photographs of Notting Hill during the period…

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COLLECTION RECORDImage not availableExplore the catalog description and source record.
MUSEUM OBJECT
Photographs and Still Images

Charlie Rouse, 1976

1976

FROM THE SOURCE CATALOG

A black-and-white photograph of Charlie Rouse with a saxophone around his neck at a performance in New York City. He is wearing a white shirt and is standing behind two microphones. A black button on his shirt has a picture of Charlie Parker on it.

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and CultureCatalog 2012.164.20
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Source image for Charlie SpikesLoading image…
BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Spikes

1951–

Leslie Charles Spikes (born January 23, 1951) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder who played from 1972 through 1980 for the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Atlanta Braves. He also played 26 games for the Chunichi…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Strong

1960–

Charles Rene Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American football coach who was most recently the defensive line coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He recently served as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Vinson

1944–

Charles Anthony Vinson (born January 5, 1944, in Washington, D.C.) is an American former professional baseball player. A first baseman, he had an 11-year professional career, although his tenure in Major League Baseball consisted of 13 games for the 1966…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Ward

1970–

Charlie Ward Jr. (born October 12, 1970) is an American basketball coach and former professional point guard who is the head coach of the Florida A&M Rattlers. Ward previously played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 11 seasons, primarily…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie White (baseball)

1927–1998

Charles White (August 12, 1927 – May 26, 1998) was an American professional baseball player who had a 15-year career in the game, including full seasons in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball. The catcher was a native of Kinston, North Carolina;…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports

Charlie Williams

1927–2006

Charles Adolphus Williams, MBE (23 December 1927 – 2 September 2006) was an English professional footballer and one of the first black players in British football after the Second World War, Later he became Britain's first well-known black stand-up…

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BIOGRAPHY
Sports & Achievement

Charlie Williams (umpire)

1943–2005

Charles Herman Williams (December 20, 1943 – September 10, 2005) was an American baseball umpire who officiated in the National League from 1978 to 1999, and in both leagues from 2000 to 2001. He was the fourth African American to serve as a full-time MLB…

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BIOGRAPHY
Business

Charlo Greene

1988–

Charlo Greene (born Charlene Egbe in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Nigerian-American businesswoman and former reporter/anchor for KTVA television in Anchorage, Alaska. Greene received media notice after she quit her job on-air in September 2014 while covering a…

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BIOGRAPHY
Biography & Culture

Charlotta Bass

1874–1969

Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass (February 14, 1874 – April 12, 1969) was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. She also focused on various other issues such as housing rights, voting rights, and labor rights, as well as…

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BIOGRAPHY
Education & Scholarship

Charlotta Gordon Pyles

Biography

Charlotta Gordon Pyles (c. 1790~1806-1880) was an African American abolitionist and lecturer. She raised money needed to purchase the freedom of some of her family members by embarking on an anit-slavery lecture tour.

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BIOGRAPHY
Education & Scholarship

Charlotte Andrews Stephens

1854–1951

Charlotte Andrews Stephens (May 9, 1854 – December 17, 1951) was the first African American to teach in Little Rock, Arkansas. She taught for seventy years and an elementary school was named for her in 1910.

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BIOGRAPHY
Civil Rights

Charlotte B. Ray

1813–1891

Charlotte B. Ray (née Charlotte Augusta Burroughs; c. 1813 – 25 October 1891) was an American prominent pastor, suffragist, and abolitionist. Charlotte was the second wife of Charles Bennett Ray a revered African-American journalist. They were an active…

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BIOGRAPHY
Biography & Culture

Charlotte Burrows

Biography

Charlotte A. Burrows is an American attorney and government official. From 2021 to 2025, Burrows served as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Burrows first joined the agency as a commissioner in 2015, and previously served as an…

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BIOGRAPHY
Music

Charlotte Crossley

Biography

Charlotte Crossley, nicknamed "Charlo", is an American singer and actress, best known for her roles in the musical theatrical productions of Hairspray, The Color Purple, Jesus Christ Superstar, as a member of the Harlettes in Bette Midler's Clams On The…

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BIOGRAPHY
Politics & Public Life

Charlotte Crutchfield

1963–

Charlotte Crutchfield (born December 8, 1963) is an American politician from Maryland. She is a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates who currently represents Maryland House of Delegates District 19 in Montgomery County.

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BIOGRAPHY
History & Culture

Charlotte Dupuy

Dates not recorded

Charlotte Dupuy, also called Lottie (c. 1787–1790 – c. 1866), was an enslaved African-American woman who filed a freedom suit in 1829 against her enslaver, Henry Clay, who was then Secretary of State. The case went to trial 17 years before Dred Scott filed…

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BIOGRAPHY
Politics

Charlotte Durante

1944–

Charlotte Gilmore Durante was elected in 1978 as the first African American woman City Commissioner in Delray Beach, a city in Palm Beach County, Florida. She served until 1982. In 2010, she was arrested on charges of defrauding Haitian immigrants out of…

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BIOGRAPHY
Law

Charlotte E. Ray

1850–1911

Ray graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872 and became the first woman admitted to the District of Columbia bar.

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Biographies, museum objects and archive records are distinct card types. Every card links to its historical source.