Category: African American History

During its heyday, Indiana Avenue was the center of Black culture in Indianapolis. During the Jazz Era legends like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald played alongside locals like the Hampton Sisters and Wes Montgomery at the 30-plus clubs in the neighborhood. “The Avenue” was also home to the headquarters of Madam C. J. Walker’s […]

Frederick McKinley Jones invented a cooling unit used in Army trucks to transport food, medicine and blood during WWII. Jones is credited with launching the refrigerated trucking industry.   —  Denise I. O’Neal, Chicago Sun Times As a 62-year-old African American mother and grandmother, I am embarrassed — and should be ashamed to admit but am […]

We can’t learn any lessons from our past if we allow it to be covered up — or we just allow ourselves to forget what happened.   — Tommy Oliver, Think, NBC News What the city of Philadelphia did to the people in MOVE was simultaneously a big deal and not at all when I was […]

  — Andrew R. Chow, TIME Ma Rainey, known as the “Mother of the Blues,” isn’t nearly as famous as the blues artists who built on her foundation, from Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday. But her overlooked legacy is being revisited thanks to the release of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film adaptation of August Wilson’s acclaimed […]

Law enforcement knew who killed Harry and Harriette Moore on Christmas in 1951. So why wasn’t justice served?   — History.com It was a double celebration: Christmas, and the Moores’ 25th anniversary. Harry T. and Harriette Moore celebrated the way they had 25 years before, cutting the cake together like newlyweds. They had no idea that the tender […]

  — Kay Jones, CNN (CNN)The Mississippi home of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers is now a national monument. The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson is the 423rd unit of the National Park System, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced on Thursday. The monument “commemorates the legacies of two civil rights activists […]

  — EJI Staff, EJI, Equal Justice Initiative On December 10, 1960, Black college football players from Humboldt State College in California were required to not mix with white people during their stay in Florida for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship Football Game. After an undefeated season, the racially integrated team […]

When we hear the term “Underground Railroad,” we usually think of the network of secret overland routes traversed by fugitive slaves escaping north into Ohio and across the border into Canada.   — Carrie Tatro, How Stuff Works In early 19th century America, the Underground Railroad launched a freedom movement that brought people of varying religions and races together […]

Montgomery businessman Loyd Howard attended a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church on Dec. 5, 1955, that galvanized the Black community behind the bus boycott that started that day.   — Mike Cason | mcason@al.com, Al .com Montgomery businessman Loyd Howard was 14 when he joined an overflow crowd at Holt Street Baptist Church […]