Heritage
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.
Hidden figures: How black women preachers spoke truth to power
Since the 19th century, a long line of black women preachers set in motion a tradition that spoke against injustices and questioned patriarchal attitudes. Here’s their story.
The Forgotten Voices of Race Records: Pullman Porters, the Rev TT Rose, and the ‘Man with a Clarinet’
The Pullman Porters, the Rev TT Rose, and the ‘Man with a Clarinet’ — In the 1920s, many black musicians were exploited by record companies, and faded into anonymity. Here are some of their stories.
Powerful Stories Hidden in Abandoned Cemeteries
African-American cemeteries across the country have largely been neglected, their powerful histories obscured by weeds, debris and, as much as anything, the passage of time.
A brief history of black names, from Perlie to Latasha
A scholar disproves the long-held assumption that black names are a recent phenomenon.
MLK’s vision of love as a moral imperative still matters
In the face of violence directed at communities of color and deepening political divisions in the country, King’s words and philosophy are perhaps more critical for us today than at any point in the recent past.
Here’s why MLK Day is more than just another day off
As our nation continues to fight issues of social injustice and racial tension, many question whether or not the ideals memorialized on MLK Day hold true throughout the year.
What Everyone Should Know About Reconstruction
COMMENTARY: Based on my experience teaching social studies and my current work preparing social studies educators, I consider understanding what happened during the Reconstruction essential for exploring black power, resilience, and excellence.
Reform Jews call for reparations for slavery
Delegates to the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial meeting in Chicago on Friday (Dec. 13) voted overwhelmingly to advocate for the creation of a federal commission to study and develop proposals for reparations to African Americans for slavery.
Slave life’s harsh realities are erased in Christmas tours of Southern plantations
Fictional accounts of white Southerners make it seem it was fun to be a slave on a plantation at holiday time. Many of today’s tours repeat such stories.
Celebrating UMI at 50 with Vintage Video and Images
UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc.) turns 50 in 2020! Take a look back through time and see how far God has brought us!
COMMENTARY: Learning resistance and courage from Ida B. Wells
A careful reading of Wells helps to deconstruct the current fear-based systems that serve the powers, principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places that stand in the path that leads to Beloved Community.
GI Bill opened doors to college, but black vets faced obstacles
Although the GI Bill enabled generations of former service members to acquire higher education and enter the middle class, the bill’s benefits were distributed in ways that create uneven outcomes.
What lost photos of Blue Notes say about South Africa’s jazz history
A rare set of photographs of South Africa’s most famous jazz ensemble, the Blue Notes, has added valuable insights to the music archive
Abiy Ahmed Wins Nobel Peace Prize, big challenges still await Ethiopia
Abiy Ahmed was awarded the prize for efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.
Who was the first black child to go to an integrated school?
School integration is often thought of as something that took place in the 1960s. But the first black student to desegregate a school by court order was an Iowa girl named Susan Clark in 1868.
After 30 years leading church, Marvin Winans still says ‘music is what I do’
Winans is marking the anniversary of his church, now with 1,800 members in the Motor City, while remaining committed to helping his community through the schools and ministries he has started to help train youth and give women a safe place to live.
16th St. Baptist church to recall bombing with messages of love, action
This Sunday, the 16th Street Baptist Church marks the 56th anniversary of the attack that killed four young girls by unveiling a refurbished space where visitors can watch videos about kindness, as well as the civil rights history of the church and its community.
Ghana’s Year of Return 2019: traveler, tourist or pilgrim?
For Africans and diasporans, learning about their heritage is important. But it remains to be seen how this will translate into a sustained continental and diasporan engagement.
400 years of black giving: From the days of slavery to the 2019 Morehouse graduation
Billionaire Robert F. Smith made a big splash when he told Morehouse grads he would pay off their student debt. Yet his generosity adheres to a long African American tradition.
Toni Morrison and the holiness of the living, breathing flesh
With Morrison, we are reminded that we are our stories. When we do not tell them, listen to them, appreciate them and learn from them, we are all poorer souls.
Pumpsie Green, 1st black player on Boston Red Sox, dies
Former Boston Red Sox infielder Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, the first black player on the last major league team to field one, has died. He was 85.
100-Year Anniversary of the Red Summer of 1919
Many people died during the summer and fall of 1919 because of race riots in cities across the country that occurred in more than three dozen cities, including Chicago and a rural county near Elaine, AK.
Juneteenth: A Commemoration of Black Independence
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration that commemorates the actual ending of slavery.
Alabama heralds ‘last slave ship’ discovery; ponders future
Dives into murky water, painstaking examinations of relics and technical data and rigorous peer review led historians and archaeologists to confirm last week that wreckage found in the Mobile River in 2018 was indeed the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States.
How poverty is reshaping the story of Emmett Till’s murder
Scholars continue to debate what, exactly, happened to Emmett Till the morning of his murder. But that hasn’t stopped a poor Mississippi community from trying to profit off one version of the story.
A brief history of slavery reparation promises
Reparations has emerged as a hot topic among Democratic candidates hoping to replace Trump in 2020. But until now, the issue has only rarely received national attention.
COBA Dancers: Passion through Performance, Education, and Research
The Toronto-based Collective of Black Artists (COBA) has been working to introduce audiences to African and Caribbean dances for 25 years. Keeping stories alive through dance and drumming provides connection and memory for the things we leave behind either by choice or urgency.
General’s family: From segregation to command in 100 years
Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle, Jr., commanding general of Fort Jackson, shares how his great-grandfather and others contributed significantly to this country without knowing what their contributions would mean to the future of the military.
‘Bloody Sunday’ altered history of a horrified nation
The images of that day in 1965 were quickly seared into the American consciousness: helmeted Alabama state troopers and mounted sheriff’s possemen beating peaceful civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., as clouds of tear gas wafted around the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On...
Biblical guide marks 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia
A Christian anti-hunger group has released a devotional guide to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Va.
Lessons from an Anthem
Chris Broussard, ESPN analyst and president of the K.I.N.G. movement, explores the contemporary relevance of Lift Every Voice and Sing.
After the rediscovery of a 19th-century novel, our view of black female writers is transformed
Sarah E. Farro’s rediscovered novel tells us that black women of her time read, discussed and emulated the works of people who were not like them.
Sister Thea Bowman takes step further toward canonization
Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman, a trailblazing African-American sister who was the first black sister in her white congregation, the first black woman to address the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and an inspiration to thousands of people with her words and songs, is another step further toward sainthood.
11 Must-Read Books for Black History Month
Check out these must-have books from Black authors, spanning time periods, themes and genres. They tackle the Black experience with grace, courage, originality, and historical context.
The enigmatic man who founded southern Africa’s largest church
ZCC members at Moria City. Sowetan/Edward Maahlamela Every Easter weekend, several millions of Zion Christian Church (ZCC) faithful from across southern Africa descend on “Moria city”, the church’s capital in the north of the country, for their annual pilgrimage. The...
How Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel, helped him break baseball’s color line
Jackie Robinson couldn’t have achieved what he did without his wife, Rachel, whose spirit was as formidable as his own.
How Tarana Burke founded the “Me Too” movement in Selma, Alabama
“This is really about people being able to walk through life with their dignity intact.”
MLK: Remembering the Dream
We’re honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with engaging articles, podcast shorts, video, and useful resources.
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.”
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.
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.