Unfreezing History: The Black Pioneer Who Was First Person to Reach the North Pole

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In the long and brutal annals of American history, few stories are more appalling than those covering the silencing of Black excellence. From enslavement to Jim Crow, from systemic oppression to cultural erasure, the legacy of white supremacy has worked tirelessly to rob Black people of their rightful place in history. Among those most grievously wronged is Matthew Alexander Henson—a name that should be universally celebrated but has instead been buried beneath the caucasity of white historians' selective amnesia. Henson wasn’t just a participant in the famed expedition to the North Pole; he was the first man to stand at that frozen frontier. A Black man. Yet, for decades, his contributions were dismissed, belittled, and outright stolen by whitey.

Let me make this clear: Matthew Henson was not just a lucky Black man who happened to be in the right place at the right time. He was the critical figure who ensured the expedition's success. His story, buried beneath centuries of racism and whitewash, is not one of merely triumphing over nature—it’s one of navigating the treacherous waters of racism and white supremacy, a battle far more insidious than the cold of the Arctic.

Early Years

Born in 1866 in Maryland, a state still bleeding from the wounds of slavery, Henson's early life was marred by the unrelenting obstacles Black men and women faced after emancipation. His parents, free Black sharecroppers, died when he was still young, leaving him orphaned at the age of 12. Yet, even at that tender age, Henson already demonstrated the resilience that would define him. After finding work on a ship, Henson quickly learned to read, a radical act of defiance in a nation that had long sought to keep Black people uneducated and powerless. But despite these early strides, the invisible weight of racism followed him wherever he went.

At 21, Henson met U.S. Navy officer Robert Peary, who would forever attempt to place himself as the sole hero of the North Pole expedition. Peary saw in Henson not an equal but an instrument—a resource to be exploited. Yet it was Henson who mastered the art of Arctic survival. He learned the Inuktitut language and formed close relationships with the Inuit people, adapting their methods to navigate the unforgiving ice and snow terrain. In contrast, Peary remained largely dependent on Henson’s skills, and his survival was often due to Henson’s guidance and ability to forge connections with the Inuit people who aided the team.

The Epic Journey to the Top of the World

The journey to the North Pole was a brutal, soul-crushing odyssey—one that tested every ounce of human endurance, both physically and mentally. Matthew Henson wasn’t merely part of the expedition; he was its cornerstone. It wasn’t just the cold they fought, it was the biting winds that cut deep like razors, the treacherous ice that threatened to swallow them whole, and the sheer, oppressive weight of isolation at the ends of the Earth. Henson, a master of Arctic survival, rose to the challenge time and again, his leadership and resourcefulness proving vital as Peary and the others struggled to adapt to the extreme conditions.

The team set out from Greenland in July 1908 with the dream of becoming the first humans to reach the North Pole. While Peary was the face of the expedition, it was Henson who had earned the respect and admiration of the Inuit guides, who viewed him as one of their own due to his skill, courage, and humility. Henson’s fluency in the Inuit language and deep understanding of their techniques gave the team a crucial edge in navigating the Arctic’s brutal environment. From building sleds to training the dogs that would pull them across the ice, Henson was the engine driving the expedition forward.

As the months wore on, exhaustion began to set in. Subzero temperatures and howling winds made progress slow and perilous. Day after day, they traversed vast, desolate plains of ice, their bodies weighed down by frostbite, hunger, and fatigue. Yet Henson remained steadfast, breaking the trail and setting the pace for the entire team. His intuition about the terrain—honed through years of experience—proved invaluable in guiding them through the dangerous shifting ice and across deadly crevasses. On the other hand, Peary often struggled with physical limitations, relying on Henson’s unyielding strength and determination to push the team forward.

By the time they reached the final leg of their journey in March 1909, Peary’s health was deteriorating. His toes had become frostbitten, and he could no longer lead the group from the front. It was Henson who took charge, scouting ahead and blazing the trail toward their ultimate goal. Despite the overwhelming odds, Henson remained focused, his eyes locked on the horizon, where the elusive North Pole lay.

On April 6, 1909, after a grueling final push, Matthew Henson became the first man to reach the North Pole, standing alone on the ice. His words, simple yet profound, reverberate through history: “I think I’m the first man to sit on top of the world.” And indeed, he was. But the glory that should have been his was cruelly stolen by the racism that would define the aftermath of this historic achievement.

The Brutal Reality of Racism

In the years that followed the expedition, Peary was celebrated, showered with accolades, and hailed as a national hero. Henson, however, was relegated to the shadows. While Peary received promotions and financial rewards, Henson was forced to take a menial job as a clerk at a federal customs office. Even in that position, he was treated with contempt, with white colleagues often sneering at his achievements, dismissing them as unimportant or fabricated. The white press, of course, followed suit, rarely mentioning his name or contributions. The erasure was deliberate.

Why? Because Henson was a Black man in a white world. The idea that a Black man could outshine a white "hero" was intolerable to a nation founded on the lie of racial inequality. American history has never been kind to those who defied its racist underpinnings. Henson, who stood at the pinnacle of human achievement, was too much of a contradiction for a nation that justified its exploitation of Black people by labeling them inferior. His existence, his success, and his very being were an affront to the white supremacist lie.

Peary, whose white privilege shielded him from the consequences of his failures, was well aware of this. In his own accounts of the journey, Peary's lying ass minimized Henson’s role, often omitting his presence entirely. The silence of the white press and the historians who followed were equally complicit in this theft. They knew that celebrating Henson as the first man to reach the North Pole would challenge the bedrock of white supremacy. It would mean admitting that Black people, even in the most extreme conditions, could not just survive but lead, outthink, and outperform their white counterparts.

Confronting the Whitewashing of Black Triumph

We cannot allow Matthew Henson’s story to become just another casualty of racist historical revisionism. The erasure of Henson’s monumental achievement is emblematic of a broader and insidious effort to diminish Black excellence. For every Henson, there are countless Black pioneers whose legacies have been buried beneath the suffocating weight of white supremacy, their contributions obscured by a system designed to elevate whiteness at all costs.

The theft of Black genius is not just a historical occurrence—it is a living reality. Every time a Black child is taught that their history begins in chains rather than with the brilliance of African empires, every time Black contributions are minimized or erased, the ongoing assault on Black identity continues. It’s a tactic rooted in white supremacy, designed to deny Black people our inheritance and to maintain the myth of white superiority.

But Matthew Henson’s life, with all its triumphs and tragedies, teaches us that we must demand our place in history—not as tokens or appendages, but as the rightful leaders of our own narratives. Our stories are not tangential to the human experience but central to it. Henson’s journey to the North Pole proves that Black people have always been pioneers, breaking barriers even when those achievements were met with contempt and erasure.

But despite efforts to wash him away, Henson’s legacy remains an enduring testament to Black people's strength, resilience, and brilliance. His story is one of triumph, not because he overcame nature but because he overcame the relentless cruelty of racism. Even as he was denied his rightful place in history, Henson continued to strive for excellence. In 1912, he published a memoir titled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, recounting his experiences. Though the white literary establishment largely ignored it, Henson’s words resonate today as a defiant reclamation of his story.

Though Henson’s contributions were obscured for decades, he did receive some long-overdue honors late in life. In 1937, the prestigious Explorers Club finally admitted him as a member—recognizing what could no longer be denied. In 1944, Congress ironically awarded him the Peary Polar Expedition Medal, and Henson was invited to the White House, where Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomed him, acknowledging his achievements with a medal bearing the name of the runner-up. Yet even these "honors", delivered at the twilight of his life, could not fully atone for the years of racism-fueled neglect and disrespect.

However, these acknowledgments are a start—a reminder that the truth cannot remain buried forever. But this is not where the work ends. Plaques, medals, and presidential handshakes, while meaningful, are not enough to erase the systemic erasure of Black excellence from the annals of history. It is up to us to tell Henson’s story and those of countless other Black trailblazers whose names white supremacy sought to bury.

Today, I challenge you to take action. Share Matthew Henson’s story with someone else. Make sure they know that it was a Black man—unacknowledged and uncelebrated for far too long—who first stood at the North Pole. Let his legacy be a reminder that Black greatness has always existed and will continue to thrive despite white supremacy’s best efforts to erase it. By telling these stories, we resist that erasure and honor the legacy of pioneers like Henson who paved the way.

No matter how hard they try to obscure our brilliance, the truth will always rise, and Black excellence will forever stand at the top of the world.

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