KOLUMN - KOLUMN Magazine

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 […]

Black church snubs Bloomberg as congregants stand, turn their backs | The Washington Times

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020African American Politics, African American Vote ...

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg was snubbed Sunday by numerous congregants at a historically black church in Selma, Alabama. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] According to a report in the New York Daily News, several members of Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church stood up and turned their back on Mr. Bloomberg as he was was speaking. […]

‘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 […]

Lash Nolen Is Harvard Medical School’s First Black Woman Class President | Teen Vogue

February 26, 2020March 31, 2020African American Education

Lash Nolen is “hungry for justice” and “hungry to see my people win.” [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Most people call her “Lash,” but LaShyra Nolen’s name is hardly the only unique thing about her. Last year, she became the first black woman ever elected as class president of Harvard Medical School (HMS). Born in Compton, California, and […]

Bartender Shannon Mustipher Upgrades Instant Ramen “I hooked it up with mint and basil and fresh scallions.” | Grub Street

February 25, 2020February 26, 2020African American Cuisine

Earlier this year, the relentlessly energetic Shannon Mustipher released Tiki, a beautiful book of modern cocktails that’s the first by a working African-American bartender in over a century. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] A rum evangelist, Mustipher is also the beverage director at Glady’s, where you’ll find her excellent painkiller; works with spirit brands (currently Bertoux brandy); and […]

‘It sounded like the future’: behind Miles Davis’s greatest album | The Guardian

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020African American Music

On the 50th anniversary of Bitches Brew, one of the contributing musicians and the director of a new documentary share their thoughts on the record [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Guitarist John McLaughlin, who helped electrify Miles Davis’s music, describes Bitches Brew as “Picasso in sound”. Stanley Nelson, who directed a new documentary on Davis, calls it “an […]

Robert F. Smith on becoming the richest black man in America, what companies get wrong about diversity, and what he’s doing to help mint more black billionaires | Business Insider

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020African American Economics

Robert F. Smith is the richest black man in America, and one of only four to currently have a net worth of more than one billion dollars. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The son of two Denver-based school teachers, he earned degrees from Cornell University and Columbia Business School before founding Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm […]

Breaking the color barrier: behind the long fight to diversify space | The Guardian

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020African American Technology

The film Black in Space: Breaking the Color Barrier dives into the under-reported history of efforts to include people of color in the space race [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Most children who rise through the American education system are familiar with the US space program – or at least the story of the program’s achievements: John Glenn’s […]