Black communities have been making major contributions to Europe's social and cultural life and landscapes for centuries. However, their achievements largely remain unrecognized by the dominant societies, as their perspectives are excluded from traditional modes of marking public memory. For the first time in European history, leading Black scholars and activists examine this issue - with first-hand knowledge of the eight European capitals in which they live. Highlighting existing monuments, memorials, and urban markers they discuss collective narratives, outline community action, and introduce people and places relevant to Black European history, which continues to be obscured today.

Natasha A. Kelly has a PhD in Communication Studies and Sociology with a research focus on visual communication, colonialism and feminism. The author, artist, curator and lecturer has taught at universities in Germany and Austria. Her numerous publications and art works combine theory and practice at the intersection of academia, art and society and focus on the past and present of Black Germany. Olive Vassell heads the Digital Media program at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. She studied International Journalism at City University in the UK. Her research interests include the role of the media in defining Black Europeans. Working in both the UK and the US, she has been an award-winning journalist for more than 25 years. This has included stints at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the UK's Channel 4, as well as the historic Afro-American Newspaper in the US. In 2009, she founded euromight.com, the first Black European news site.