African American History - KOLUMN Magazine

Fannie Lou Hamer | PBS

March 3, 2020March 3, 2020African American History, Black History

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in 1917, the 20th child of Lou Ella and James Lee Townsend, sharecroppers east of the Mississippi Delta. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] She first joined her family in the cotton fields at the age of six. Although she managed to complete several years of school, by adolescence she was picking hundreds of […]

Josephine Holloway cleared path for girls of color to be Scouts | Tennessean

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020African American History

While many things have changed since Holloway launched her first troop in 1924, the essential value of Girl Scouting remains. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] When people think of Girl Scouts this time of year, visions of Thin Mints, Trefoils and Samoas dance in their heads. Cookie season is sweet. But I’d like to offer even more substantial […]

The Cruel Story Behind The ‘Reverse Freedom Rides’ | NPR WAMU 88.5

March 2, 2020June 11, 2020African American History

By Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR WAMU 88.5 After three days on a Greyhound bus, Lela Mae Williams was just an hour from her destination—Hyannis, Mass.—when she asked the bus driver to pull over. She needed to change into her finest clothes. She had been promised the Kennedy family would be waiting for her. It was late […]

‘Self Made’ Trailer: Octavia Spencer Radiates Strength as C.J. Walker in Netflix Series | IndieWire

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020African American History, African American Wealth ...

Blair Underwood and Tiffany Haddish join the Oscar winner in a lively period piece about a black woman succeeding. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] After the debacle that was the Oscars all but ignoring black talent this year, audiences are long overdue to see black characters thriving and succeeding onscreen. Like most progressive change in Hollywood these days, […]

11 charts that track the progress America has made in racial equality — and all the visceral ways we still have left to go | Business Insider

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020African American History

February is Black History Month, when Americans celebrate the achievements of well-known black figures and the progress that has been made so far for the US black population. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] There have been improvements in different areas of living (such as black employment and earnings) since the 1960s, when many of the government tools tracking […]

6 myths about the history of Black people in America | Vox

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020African American History, Black History

Six historians weigh in on the biggest misconceptions about black history, including the Tuskegee experiment and enslaved people’s finances. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] To study American history is often an exercise in learning partial truths and patriotic fables. Textbooks and curricula throughout the country continue to center the white experience, with Black people often quarantined to a […]

Don’t pit slavery descendants against black immigrants. Racism doesn’t know the difference. | USA Today

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020African American History, Black History

An anti-African, anti-black-immigrant stance is shortsighted. As we celebrate Black History Month, we should not divide the black community. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Should African American/black identity be defined by descendants of slavery, or by African ancestry? This increasingly bitter debate in the black community is undermining the spirit of Black History Month. At the center of […]

There Have Been 10 Black Senators Since Emancipation | The New York Times

February 17, 2020April 9, 2020African American History, African American Politics

Elected 150 years ago, Hiram Revels was the first. A few days ago, 300 people gathered in the Old State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the election of Hiram Revels as the nation’s first African-American member of Congress. As nearly everyone knows, in the nation’s more than two centuries of […]

Ten “Must Watch” Black History Documentaries | PBS

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020African American History, Black History

Documentaries can open windows to our past. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Through the lens of talented filmmakers, we can re-live iconic moments in history like the 1963 March on Washington or climb aboard a Greyhound bus to join the Freedom Riders on their journey through the Jim Crow South. Documentaries offer rich insight into our society and […]

The Rosewood Massacre: How a lie destroyed a black town | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

February 14, 2020April 9, 2020African American History

From the bruises on her body, it was clear Fannie Taylor had been beaten. The story she told to explain them away destroyed an all-black town in Florida and got several of its residents murdered. On New Year’s Day 1923, Taylor, then the 22-year-old wife of a mill worker, said a black man had assaulted […]