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Home · Black History Month

What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present

Let's celebrate the history of Black love.
By Charli Penn · Updated October 26, 2020
01
Circa 1970
Unidentified couple circa 1970s.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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02
Circa 1899
Elderly African American couple posed outside of building, near Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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03
1905
Unidentified couple circa 1905.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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04
1912
Unidentified couple circa 1912.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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05
1915
Unidentified couple circa 1915.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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06
1915
Unidentified couple circa 1915.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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07
1920
Unidentified couple circa 1920.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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08
1923
Captioned ‘Beaulah and Lloyd McIlvain’ on April 20, 1923.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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09
1925
Unidentified couple circa 1925.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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10
1930
1930
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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11
1930
Unidentified couple circa 1930.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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12
1932
Unidentified couple in Ohio circa 1932.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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13
1936
Nigerian musician and composer Fela Sowande (1905 – 1987) with his fiance, American soprano Mildred Marshall, in Regent’s Park, London, 13th September 1936. Sowande is working as a the pianist and Marshall is singing in the London production of Lew Leslie’s musical revue, ‘Blackbirds Of 1936’.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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14
1942
June 1942: An African-American couple dances, as other people clap, inside the recreation tent of the Farm security administration agricultural workers’ camp, Bridgeton, New Jersey.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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15
1945
Frederick C. Branch (1922 – 2005), the first African American to be commissioned in the United States Marine Corps, gets his second Lieutenant bars pinned on him by his wife Camilla ‘Peggy’ Branch, November 1945. being pinned with his second lieutenant bars by his wife, Camilla ‘Peggy’ Branch.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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16
Circa 1950
A student, wearing a sweater from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), relaxes on the grounds with a lady friend, Hampton, VA, early twentieth century.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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17
Circa 1960
Unidentified couple circa 1960.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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18
Circa 1960
Unidentified couple circa 1960.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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19
Circa 1965
Unidentified couple circa 1965.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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20
Circa 1968
March 1968: Mr and Mrs Gabriel Samuel, two Nigerian students living in London, on the day of their wedding.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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21
Circa 1970
Unidentified couple circa 1970s.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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22
1970
Unidentified couple circa 1970.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
getty images
23
1973
Unidentified couple in a Chicago neighborhood circa 1973.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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24
1973
Unidentified couple in a Chicago neighborhood circa 1973.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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25
1978
Unidentified couple circa 1978.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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26
Circa 1980s
Unidentified couple in a New York circa 1980.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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27
1988
Unidentified couple seated atop a carved tree stump in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, New York, New York circa 1988.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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28
Circa 1987
Unidentified couple on a pier in Chicago, Illinois circa 1987.
What Black Love Looked Like From the 1800s to the Present
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