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When White Supremacists Overthrew an Elected Government | The New York Times

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020Racism

Wilmington’s Lie The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy By David Zucchino Today we Americans find ourselves struggling with the ghosts of our past. Some among us reach for histories that affirm the established view of who we are as a nation. Many believe the United States is, and must always […]

Does the United States Owe Reparations to the Descendants of Enslaved People? | The New York Times

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020African American History, Reparations

The idea of economic amends for past injustices and persistent disparities is getting renewed attention. What do you think should happen? [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] In 1988, President Ronald Reagan sought to “right a grave wrong” by signing legislation that apologized for the government’s forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II and established a $1.25 […]

Mike Espy Would Be Mississippi’s First Black Senator in 139 Years, But Governor Bryant Says It’d Begin ‘1000 Years of Darkness’ | Deep South Voice

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020African American Politics, African American Vote

Phil Bryant, Mississippi’s outgoing Republican governor, is warning that the election of Democrat Mike Espy, an African American who served as the US Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton, would kick off a millennium of “darkness.” [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Espy is challenging US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican that Bryant appointed to fill a vacancy in […]

America Has Tried Reparations Before. Here Is How It Went. | The New York Times

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020African American History, Black History ...

With a renewed focus on reparations for slavery, what lessons can be drawn from payments to victims of other historical injustices in America? [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Ever since a Union Army general announced in Galveston, Tex., that “all slaves are free” on June 19, 1865 — a day now commemorated as Juneteenth — the question of […]

When Portland banned blacks: Oregon’s shameful history as an ‘all-white’ state | The Washington Post

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020African American History, Black History

In 1844, all black people were ordered to get out of Oregon Country, the expansive territory under American rule that stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] reside online and are fully searchable Those who refused to leave could be severely whipped, the provisional government law declared, by “not less than […]

East St. Louis woman who raised 12 children and helped feed the hungry dies at 105 | Belleville News-Democrat

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020KOLUMN Magazine

A few years ago, I read slave narratives to explore the lives of black agricultural workers after the end of the Civil War. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The narratives came from the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, a program that employed researchers from 1936 to 1938 to interview former enslaved people, producing more than […]

Fela Kuti: Our 1986 Interview | SPIN

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020African Music

This article originally appeared in the July 1986 issue of SPIN. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Nigeria’s Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, political gadfly, king of Afrobeat, and preeminent pan-Africanist, regained his freedom when Nigerian authorities ordered his unconditional release from prison on April 24, 1986, after he had served 18 months of a five-year sentence for alleged violations of currency […]

What Martin Luther King Sr. Wrote About His Son’s Death | Time

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020African American Activist, African American History ...

In April 1968, my sons went to Memphis to help organize a struggle by the city’s sanitation workers to achieve better wages and working conditions. I wondered about M.L.’s involvement in this, whether or not he was spreading his concerns and his energies too thin. But again he was right. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] reside online and […]

KKK Bombs Alabama Home of Civil Rights Leader Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth | Equal Justice Initiative

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020African American Activist, African American History

On December 25, 1956, Ku Klux Klan members in Alabama bombed the home of civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Shuttlesworth was home at the time of the bombing with his family and two members of Bethel Baptist Church, where he served as pastor. The 16-stick dynamite blast destroyed the home and caused […]

Richard and Mildred Loving Plead Guilty to Marrying Interracially | Equal Justice Initiative

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020African American Activist, African American History

After marrying in Washington, D.C., in 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving returned to their native Caroline County, Virginia, to build a home and start a family. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Their union was a criminal act in Virginia because Richard was white, Mildred was black, and the state’s Racial Integrity Act, passed in 1924, criminalized interracial marriage. […]