ABOUT BGHRA
Who We Are
The Black German Heritage & Research Association (BGHRA) is an international, interdisciplinary 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Camden. We connect Black Germans in Germany and throughout the diaspora with Black German adoptees, scholars, artists, educators, students, activists, families, and community partners.
BGHRA creates spaces in which Black German history, culture, and lived experience can be documented, studied, shared, and celebrated. Our work reaches from Germany to the United States and beyond, reflecting the many places Black German lives and histories have taken root.
What We Do
Preserve History
We document Black German life across generations through interviews, recorded programs, publications, films, and archival initiatives. We work to protect histories that have too often been scattered, overlooked, or excluded from institutional collections.
Advance Research and Education
We promote interdisciplinary scholarship and provide resources that help educators and students bring Black German history, literature, art, culture, and contemporary life into classrooms and public conversations.
Connect People Across Borders
Our conferences, lectures, film programs, workshops, and partnerships bring together people whose knowledge and experiences might otherwise remain separated by geography, language, discipline, or generation.
Amplify Black German Voices
We support work by and about Black Germans while encouraging ethical scholarship and storytelling that recognize lived experience as an essential form of knowledge.
Why This Work Matters
Black people have been part of German history for centuries, yet their lives and contributions have too often been treated as peripheral to the national story. Black German history is German history. It is also part of African diasporic, European, American, and global history.
BGHRA helps restore these interconnected histories to the record. We bring academic research into conversation with personal testimony, cultural expression, and community knowledge so that Black Germans are not simply studied, but recognized as interpreters, creators, and custodians of their own histories.
Building a Lasting Record
A Foundational History—and a Broader Story
The history of postwar Black German children adopted abroad is a foundational part of BGHRA’s work. Their experiences illuminate questions of race, childhood, family separation, migration, citizenship, identity, and belonging. BGHRA places these histories within the larger and richly diverse story of Black German life, scholarship, culture, activism, art, and community.
Join Us
Whether you are Black German, an adoptee or family member, a scholar, educator, student, artist, activist, institutional partner, or supporter, there is a place for you in this work.
Explore our programs and resources. Share knowledge. Partner with us. Help preserve Black German history for the generations to come.