There are many missing pieces in American ethnic studies for people of color. Historians, librarians, and teachers are helping to fill in the gaps by curating materials and writing textual history that can be digitized for larger audiences to study.

This issue highlights excellent digital projects that support the goal of identifying Black ancestors and their long history and contributions to America. 

Freedom on the Move (Runaway Ads for Enslaved People)

Freedom on the Move, https://app.freedomonthemove.org/, is a database of fugitives from American slavery. Its name is an interesting and apt title for a website that documents self-liberating people. “Runaway” newspaper advertisements were an effort to monitor their movements and recapture them.

Searching for a runaway ad for an enslaved person who may have escaped from the enslaver is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Although genealogists and historians know thousands of these ads exist, searching for them has always been problematic. The correct names for the enslaver and enslaved person may not be known,

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