Heritage
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.
How Maya Angelou made me feel
“I want to acknowledge how Maya Angelou made me feel as a young black American woman, and how those feelings have defined how I experience myself as a complete human being.”
Southern Baptist seminary report ties founders to slaveholding, white supremacy
A 71-page report released Wednesday (Dec. 12) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary, says its early trustees and faculty “defended the righteousness of slaveholding.”
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.
Ethiopia Gets Its First Female President
Ethiopia’s parliament has made Sahle-Work Zewde the country’s first female president. And while the role is largely ceremonial, her appointment carries power in what it signifies.
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.
Christian Surgeon who recites Bible and Quran to patients wins UN award
Dr. Evan Atar Adaha knows that faith matters to many of his patients. Before administering the anesthetic for surgery, he recites verses from the Bible or the Quran with his patients.
‘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.
The Danger of ‘Casually Forgetting’ Racial Violence
Southwest Virginia has casually forgotten the racial violence at its heart, as if this ugly history never happened.
Arthur Mitchell, pioneering black ballet dancer, dies at 84
Arthur Mitchell broke barriers for African-Americans in the 1950s as a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet and went on to become a driving force in the creation of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Unraveling the Hidden Black History of Appalachian Activism
Placing Black people in Appalachia’s history is not simply a matter of recognizing diversity. Rather, it forces a different angle, a truer way of seeing the region and its relationship to the South and the United States.
The story of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America’s first black pop star
When Greenfield appeared on the scene, she shattered preexisting beliefs about artistry and race.
Vermont town honors the nation’s first ordained black minister
More than 220 years after the first ordained black minister in the U.S. became a pastor in a small, predominantly white community in Vermont and preached about brotherly love, freedom and unity, people there are honoring his life and work with an historic marker.
Columbia U Protests 50 Years Ago Offer Insight for Today’s Activists
The 1968 protests at Columbia University led the institution to abandon a gym project that residents considered racist and cut off its defense work – and generated worldwide attention in the process.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dies at age 80
Kofi Annan, one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary-general, has died. He was 80.
#IdaPledge Makes History in Honor of Ida B. Wells
How grassroots support and social media made a monumental difference in honoring her legacy.
New coalition seeks sainthood for five African-Americans
The founders of two religious orders and an African-American priest who had to train in Rome because no U.S. seminary would accept him are among five candidates being supported for sainthood by a new coalition of black Catholic organizations.
African rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: The evolution of gospel music
A choir sings traditional gospel music. Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller The enslaved Africans who first arrived in the British colony of Virginia in 1619 after being forcefully removed from their natural environments left much behind, but their rhythms associated with...
Mysterious missing parts of Malcolm X’s autobiography found
For decades, a burning question loomed over a towering 20th-century book: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”: What happened to the reputedly missing chapters that may have contained some of the most explosive thoughts of the African-American firebrand assassinated in 1965?
Civil rights legend Meredith says he’s on a mission from God
Meredith aims to confront what he sees as society’s “breakdown of moral character” by encouraging people to live by the Ten Commandments.
Rosa Parks family house set for auction
The house where Rosa Parks sought refuge after fleeing the South amid death threats is scheduled for auction next week with a minimum bid of $1 million.
Tracing Mandela’s footsteps 100 years after his birth
Follow in Mandela’s footsteps from the villages where he was born and raised, to the Soweto township where he became an anti-apartheid leader, to Robben Island where he was imprisoned for years.
Feds Reopen Emmett Till Case
Last year, the 1955 case came to light again when Till’s accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham, admitted that she lied in her testimony about the brutal beating and murder of the 14-year-old Chicago boy.
When gospel sermons came on the phonograph
The first truly African-American musical form, the “Spirituals,” took shape in the 17th and 18th centuries within the generations of slaves born into the tough American experience. Music was a daily part of their survival and sustenance. Spirituals were sung “a...