Heritage
Two-Minute Podcast Shorts on Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Melvin Banks draws Biblical connections and insight into the life and leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Take a few minutes to enjoy these two-minute podcast shorts.
Tuskegee Airman John Lyle dead at 98
Lyle died Saturday at his home on Chicago’s South Side, his wife, Eunice, said Monday. She added that Lyle had been battling prostate cancer.
5 religious facts you might not know about Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass, known as the father of the civil rights movement, 19th-century abolitionist, and former slave was also a licensed preacher. Here are five religious facts about Douglass.
The hidden history of black nationalist women’s political activism
Too often, Black history focuses on black men, sidelining black women and diminishing their contributions. This is true in mainstream narratives of black nationalist movements in the United States.
George H.W. Bush’s legacy on racial issues is complicated
George H.W. Bush got elected president after a campaign marked by the infamous Willie Horton ad, about a black murderer who raped a white woman while on a weekend furlough from prison. On the other side of the racial ledger, Bush appointed Gen. Colin Powell as the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Unearth Hidden Stories from African-American History in Digital Archive
The Slave Societies Digital Archive holds approximately 600,000 images dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
One of the last survivors of 1921 Tulsa race riot dies at 103
Olivia Hooker, one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riots and among the first black women in the U.S. Coast Guard, has died. She was 103.
Old ‘Traveling while black’ guidebooks still resonate today
Have you seen the movie “Green Book?” Although Green Books ceased publication some 50 years ago, they are worth reflecting on in light of the fact that for drivers of color, the road remains anything but open.
Rev. James Lawson recommended for Congressional Gold Medal
The Rev. James Lawson, a United Methodist minister known for his advocacy of nonviolence in the civil rights era and beyond, has been recommended for a Congressional Gold Medal.
African-American GIs of WWII: Fighting for democracy abroad and at home
Until the 21st century, the contributions of African-American soldiers in World War II barely registered in America’s collective memory of that war.
How World War I sparked the artistic movement that transformed black America
With Africa as a source of inspiration, a “New Negro” emerged out of the ruins of the Great War – not broken and disenchanted, but possessed with a new sense of self, one shaped from bold, unapologetically black models.
Author Ntozake Shange of ‘For Colored Girls’ fame has died
Playwright, poet and author Ntozake Shange, whose most acclaimed theater piece is the 1975 Tony Award-nominated play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” has died.
Forgotten black scholar studied – and faced – structural racism in the 1940s
Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth Stubbs Davis were among the first black anthropologists in the country. Bringing their experiences on the wrong side of the color line to mainstream social science, they made landmark contributions.
Desegregating blood: A civil rights struggle to remember
Until 1950 the Red Cross segregated blood. It was thousands of African-Americans during World War II who forced the Red Cross to include them as donors and helped pave the way for activism of the 1960s.
How African American folklore saved the cultural memory and history of slaves
All over the world, community stories, customs, and beliefs have been passed down from generation to generation. This folklore is used by elders to teach family and friends about their collective cultural past. And for African Americans, folklore has played a particularly important part in documenting history too.
‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ still speaks to nation’s racial discord, 50 years later
Does Anne Moody’s memoir represent how far we’ve come as a society. Or is it a stark reminder of how far we need to go?
America’s always had black inventors, even when excluded from patents
Though U.S. patent law was created with color-blind language to foster innovation, the patent system consistently excluded black inventors born or forced into American slavery from recognition.
Marlin Briscoe reflects on days as pioneering quarterback
Marlin Briscoe didn’t want to be pigeonholed simply because of stereotypes against black men. He was a star quarterback in college, and he believed he had the talent, intelligence and leadership skills to be one in the pros.