Editorial Standards

This page explains how First Black Person researches, writes, and publishes its articles. If a claim on this site seems wrong or incomplete, this is the standard we're holding ourselves to. Write to us if we've fallen short of it.

Our Mission

Document the people who were first to break American institutional barriers, in a form that is accurate, sourced, and accessible to a general reader.

Source Hierarchy

Not all sources are equal. We use the following order of preference when researching an article:

  1. Primary sources. Original newspaper reports from the date of the event, institutional records, speech transcripts, court documents, patent filings, personal letters, oral history recordings, and photographs with verified provenance.
  2. Institutional archives. The Library of Congress, the National Archives, Smithsonian museums, university special collections, and subject-specific museums such as the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
  3. Peer-reviewed scholarship. Academic books and journal articles published by university presses and scholarly journals.
  4. Reputable secondary reporting. Established news organizations with a track record of fact-checking, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters, National Geographic, and the major television networks' archives.
  5. Tertiary sources. Wikipedia, encyclopedias, and reference compilations. We use these to identify leads but not as the final authority for any published fact.

When a fact rests entirely on a tertiary source, we either find better support or we don't publish it.

Research Process

Every article follows the same sequence:

  1. Scope. We decide what first the article will document. Some categories have multiple competing claims for the same first. We decide in advance which claim the article is about and acknowledge the others.
  2. Primary research. A researcher pulls together the available source material: archival newspapers, institutional records, academic accounts, and any available oral histories.
  3. Draft. A writer produces a draft in plain language, with citations tied to specific sentences rather than lumped at the end.
  4. Fact check. A second reader reviews every factual claim against the source it rests on. Dates, names, places, numbers, and direct quotes all get verified.
  5. Review. A third reader looks at the article for clarity, tone, and completeness. Does it answer what a reader would actually ask? Does it credit everyone it should?
  6. Publish. The article goes live with a visible published date.

Articles are reviewed annually and any time new research materially changes what we know.

Handling Disputed Claims

Many of the firsts we cover are disputed. Jackie Robinson is widely called the first Black player in Major League Baseball, but Moses Fleetwood Walker played for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884, and William Edward White played one game for the Providence Grays in 1879. All three claims are factually defensible depending on how you define "Major League Baseball" and when the color line became enforced.

Our approach is to name the most commonly cited first, explain why that claim is usually made, and then describe the earlier or competing claims with enough context for a reader to understand the distinction.

We don't pretend disputes don't exist, and we don't pretend they've been settled when they haven't.

Corrections Policy

If we publish an error, we correct it. We do not silently change the article.

Corrections appear as an italicized note at the bottom of the article, dated, with a plain description of what was wrong and what it should say. Significant corrections also update the "Last reviewed" date in the byline.

Readers who find factual errors can contact us. We respond to every credible correction within a week, verify against sources, and update the article if the correction stands up.

Attribution and Copyright

All photographs credit their source. We use images from the Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons, institutional press kits, and public domain archives. We do not use photographs we cannot source.

Quotations appear in quotation marks with the speaker and original context named. We do not paraphrase quotations as if they were direct speech.

Updates and Dating

Every article shows two dates:

A review that changed nothing substantive is still noted as an annual review. A review that added or changed a fact is noted as an update with a short note explaining what changed.

Conflicts of Interest

First Black Person does not accept paid placements, sponsored content, or affiliate relationships with any subject of our articles or their estates. We do not run advertising that resembles editorial content.

We accept standard display advertising through Google AdSense and similar programs. Advertising has no influence on what we cover or how we cover it.

Generative AI Disclosure

We use AI tools for research assistance, source identification, and drafting support. Every article is written, fact-checked, and reviewed by the editorial team. No article is published without human verification of every factual claim against a named source.

We do not publish AI-generated images as if they were photographs. Any illustration generated by AI is labeled as an illustration.

Who We Are

First Black Person is an independent editorial project. We are not affiliated with any museum, university, advocacy organization, or political group. Read more about the editorial team on our About page.

We believe these stories deserve the same care a museum curator or a university historian would give them. This page is our public commitment to that standard.