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28 Days, 28 Films for Black History The NY Times chief film critics have chosen essential movies from the 20th century that convey the larger history of black Americans in cinema. By MANOHLA DARGIS and A.O. SCOTT For Black History Month, we have selected 28 essential films from the 20th century pertaining to African-American experiences. These aren’t the […]
Fantastic Four #52, where Black Panther was first featured. (Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com and Heritage Auctions) The Real History Behind the Black Panther BY RYAN MATTIMORE // FEBRUARY 15, 2018 …[T]he journey from comic book to screen has taken more than 50 years: Black Panther, Marvel Comic’s first black superhero, debuted in Marvel’s “Fantastic 4” comic in 1966, and […]
Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) rose to the national stage from Houston’s largely African-American Fifth Ward, becoming a public defender of the U.S. Constitution and a leading presence in Democratic Party politics for two decades. She was the first black woman elected to the Texas state senate and the first black Texan in Congress. As […]
Jesse Jackson on M.L.K.: One Bullet Couldn’t Kill the Movement MARCH 30, 2018 By Yohuru Williams Rev. Jackson, who was part of King’s inner circle in 1968—and witnessed his assassination—weighs in on that shocking moment, its turbulent aftermath and carrying forth the dream. Read More
Tennessee lawmakers punish Memphis for removing statue of Confederate and KKK leader By Alex Horton A few years before Nathan Bedford Forrest became the leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and decades before a statue of him was dedicated in Memphis, the Confederate general overlooked Fort Pillow and planned how he would destroy the beacon for escaped slaves. […]
What’s Auschwitz? 2/3 of Millennials Don’t Know it Was a Nazi Death Camp, Survey Reports Mark A. Kellner | Religion News Service | Friday, April 13, 2018 Most American millennials don’t know what Auschwitz was, a survey finds. Despite the slaughter of nearly a million Jews — as well as hundreds of thousands of Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners […]
‘We Can Be a Better Country If We Know These Stories.’ The Complicated History of African Americans in the Military By LILY ROTHMAN January 31, 2018 There are as many different kinds of war stories as there are people who have been called to fight. There are inspirational war stories, gruesome war stories, sad war stories. […]
Alexa Canady Surgeon, Educator (1950–) In 1981, Alexa Canady became the first female African-American neurosurgeon in the United States. Dr. Alexa Canady was born on November 7, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan. While she was in college, a summer program inspired her to pursue a medical career. In 1981, she became the first female African-American neurosurgeon […]
Irene Morgan Civil Rights Activist (1917–2007) Irene Morgan was a civil rights activist who, a decade prior to Rosa Parks’ landmark case, won her own U.S. Supreme Court Case in ‘Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia,’ which declared interstate transport racial segregation to be unconstitutional. Irene Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (April 9, 1917 – August 10, […]
How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope Before its subversion in the Jim Crow era, the fruit symbolized black self-sufficiency. Courtesy Brown University Library WILLIAM R. BLACK “But the stereotype that African Americans are excessively fond of watermelon emerged for a specific historical reason and served a specific political purpose. The trope came into full force […]
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/01/13/archives-president-reagan-designates-martin-luther-king-jr-day-federal-holiday RONALD REAGAN AND THE REWRITING OF MARTIN LUTHER KING’S LEGACY It’s become an MLK Day tradition for conservatives to point to King’s speeches on nonviolence and equality as a way to criticize modern black activists. Meanwhile, King’s popular image—transmitted in elementary school lessons for the holiday—has been drained of its radical social critiques and has […]
Marie M. Daly Chemist, Scientist, Scientist(1921–2003) Marie M. Daly is best known for being the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. Marie M. Daly was born on April 16, 1921, in Queens, New York. She was raised in an education-oriented family, and Daly quickly received her B.S. and M.S. […]
HOW AN EX-SLAVE SUCCESSFULLY WON A CASE FOR REPARATIONS IN 1783 Grandchildren of slaves. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. Inspired in part by journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, conversations about reparations for slavery and its aftermath have become mainstream. But they aren’t new: […]
REMEMBERING BILLIE HOLIDAY Columbia Records/Courtesy Neal Peters Collection This April marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Billie Holiday, the recording artist fondly known as “Lady Day.” Known as much for her demons as her pioneering jazz vocals, Holiday is a member of both the Grammy and the Rock and Roll Halls of […]