Tracing the Real Betty Boop back to a Notorious Bootlegger’s Club in 1920s Harlem | Messy Nessy Chic

Natalie McKane, Messy Nessy Chic [dropcap]The[/dropcap] 1920’s in Paris may have been roaring, but over in Harlem, they were stomping. New York’s playground was not short of an underground boozer, but there was one place in particular that dominated the scene; The Cotton Club. Patron Saint of jazz, notorious bootlegging and the home of the […]

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Harlem Hellfighters: The black soldiers who brought jazz to Europe | BBC

Video by Jane O’Brien and Bill McKenna, BBC [dropcap]World[/dropcap] War One brought many social changes – not least, the introduction of jazz to Europe. Thanks to a black American regiment of musicians called the Harlem Hellfighters, the French discovered the joys of syncopation. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] More than a century on, US musician Jason Moran is […]

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Watch Night Service in the Black Church in America: 150 Years After the Emancipation Proclamation | Huffpost

“Watch Night Service” in the Black Church in America symbolizes the historical fact, that on the night of Dec. 31, 1862 during the Civil War, free and freed blacks living in the Union States gathered at churches and/or other safe spaces, while thousands of their enslaved black sisters and brothers stood, knelt and prayed on plantations and other slave holding sites in America — waiting for President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation into law.

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South Jersey Black church being turned into museum honoring Harriet Tubman | New York Amsterdam News

Cyril Josh Barker, New York Amsterdam News A previously unknown portrait of Harriet Tubman. Library of Congress. Featured Image [dropcap]Reports[/dropcap] indicate that a church in Cape May, N.J., is being transformed into a museum honoring abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The Macedonia Baptist Church is converting the next-door home of its late […]

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Black-Owned Startup Combines Greeting Cards With Technology and Automation | Black News.com

Photographs by Marti Corn; Text by Mark Murrmann , Black News.com [dropcap]Atlanta[/dropcap]— “How many times have you found yourself in this scenario: It’s a friend’s or relative’s birthday and you’re driving to the store at the last minute to buy a card. You also must go get stamps. “I’ve been there more times than I […]

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