The celebrated author and Nobel Prize winner died this week at the age of 88
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How Bessie Smith Influenced A Century Of Popular Music | NPR
— Maureen Mahon, NPR Singer Bessie Smith’s recording career only lasted 10 years, but during that time she created a body of work that helped shape the sound of the twentieth century. Her first single, “Downhearted Blues” — written by two women, pianist Lovie Austin and blues singer Alberta Hunter — was a major hit […]
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The Woman Who Beat The Klan | The New York Times
By Jesse Kornbluth, The New York Times About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or […]
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Garrett Morgan Biography | Biography.com
— Biography.com Staff, Biography_com [dropcap]Garrett[/dropcap] Morgan blazed a trail for African-American inventors with his patents, including those for a hair-straightening product, a breathing device, a revamped sewing machine and an improved traffic signal. Synopsis With only an elementary school education, Garrett Morgan, born in Kentucky on March 4, 1877, began his career as a sewing-machine mechanic. […]
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The Beautiful Power of Ta-Nehisi Coates | Vanity Fair
With his groundbreaking nonfiction works, Ta-Nehisi Coates emerged as our most vital public intellectual. Now, his debut novel, The Water Dancer, takes him to uncharted depths.
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This Couple Spent Their First Year Of Dating Traveling The World | Travel Noire
DeAnna Taylor, Travel Noire [dropcap]Meet[/dropcap] Jazz (25) and Marc (33). Jazz is Jamaican-American and Marc is German with roots in Mauritius. The couple randomly met at a bar in Bali and 10 days after their initial encounter, decided to travel the world while sharing their art forms as they go. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Marc is a […]
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‘We have a long way to go:’ Descendants of first black Americans on race relations | Reuters
— Angela Moore, Reuters HAMPTON, Va. (Reuters) – Four hundred years after the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived on the coast of Virginia, the descendants of one of the first black American families say race relations in the United States still have “a long way to go.” The Tucker family, who trace their ancestry to […]
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America Has a Digital Skills Gap. Libraries Can Help Fix It. | The Atlantic
As branches across the country invest in new technologies and digital services, patrons are increasingly seeing them as go-to hubs for personal and professional development.
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“It Wasn’t a Golden Age”: Cornel West Says Democrats Have to Reckon with Mixed Obama Legacy | Democracy Now!
Harvard professor Cornel West joins us from Detroit, where he attended both nights of the Democratic debate. He talks about the troubling legacy of the Obama administration and why he is supporting Bernie Sanders again for president. AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to last night’s debate. This is Senator Kamala Harris. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Sen. Kamala […]
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How a Black Farming Community Found Justice | YES Magazine
Black families in the South are doing important work to continue the legacy of Black farming communities.
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