One of the best ways to celebrate Black History Month is by elevating Black figures whose accomplishments haven’t been popularized to the same extent as those of their white counterparts. While I can’t force others to seek out the people that history has forgotten, I can make something large and colorful that will catch their eye, encouraging them to take a second and acquire new information for themselves. And that is exactly what I did.

The periodic table of Black history in itself was not an original idea; I took it and made it my own. Discontent with a mere name and date of birth per element, I took on the difficult task of condensing each Black pioneer’s achievements into a short quasi-biography. I also decided not to feature Black leaders whose impacts are regularly discussed (e.g. MLK, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, etc.) — not to suggest their insignificance, but to encourage new conversations. Hopefully, the periodic table of Black history will spark interest and lead to a more in-depth exploration of the culture, activism, and human stories in Black history.