— Christina Maxouris, CNN CNN Thelma Shepherd was riding back to her Chicago apartment on July 27, 1919, when her streetcar came under attack. Black and white men hurled rocks at each other and at the passing vehicle. The 19-year-old who had recently left the South for a job in the bustling city didn’t know it, […]
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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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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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‘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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Overlooked No More: Georgia Gilmore, Who Fed and Funded the Montgomery Bus Boycott | The New York Times
Gilmore started the Club From Nowhere, a clandestine group that prepared and sold meals to raise money for the 381-day resistance action.
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The Nuns Who Bought and Sold Human Beings | The New York Times
America’s nuns are beginning to confront their ties to slavery, but it’s still a long road to repentance.
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Retracing a slave route in Ghana, 400 years on | Reuters
By Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters ADIDWAN, Ghana (Reuters) – Nana Assenso stands at the grave of his uncle, remembering the man he loved but also a past that has haunted his family for generations. His uncle was called Kwame Badu, a name that has been passed on through the family in remembrance of an ancestor with that […]
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City erects its first statue of an African American girl in South Philly | Curbed: Philadelphia
Anna Merriman, Curbed: Philadelphia Smith Playground Summer Camp participants, and Boys and Girls Club members take the first photos in from of the “MVP” Ora Washington statue. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY). Featured Image [dropcap]Philly’s[/dropcap] first-ever statue of a freestanding African American girl was unveiled this week in West Passyunk’s Smith Playground. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The statue, which is […]
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