WRIIT - KOLUMN Magazine

Muhammad Ali in a Broadway Musical? It Happened | The New York Times

January 1, 2020January 1, 2020African American Athletes, African American Icon

Fifty years ago this week, “Buck White” opened, and very quickly closed. What does this footnote to theater history still have to tell us? [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] So, as the sportscaster Howard Cosell used to ask great boxers: What went wrong out there, champ? When the stage musical “Buck White” opened at the George Abbott Theater […]

How Many Black Male Teachers Did You Have Growing Up? | Black Enterprise

December 31, 2019December 31, 2019African American Education, Black Fathers

Vincent Cobb II and Rashiid Coleman are the founders behind The Black Male Educators Convening, an organization on a mission to triple the number of highly-effective black male teachers in Philadelphia public schools to 1,000 by 2025. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Through a series of programs including a yearly conference, purpose career fair, two-year paid summer program, […]

The Magnolia House used to be a decades-old passion project for one man. Now, someone else shares that dream — his daughter. | Greensboro.com

December 31, 2019December 31, 2019African American History, Black History

GREENSBORO — Natalie Pass Miller loved her life in Atlanta working for the corporate sector. While on a visit back home in 2018, a casual conversation with her dad changed everything. Sam Pass, at one time a fire and safety specialist at Duke University, had spent the past two decades of his off time meticulously […]

‘The Slaves Dread New Year’s Day the Worst’: The Grim History of January 1 | Time

December 31, 2019December 31, 2019African American History, Black History ...

Americans are likely to think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as a time to celebrate the fresh start that a new year represents, but there is also a troubling side to the holiday’s history. In the years before the Civil War, the first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking […]

The Norfolk 17 face a hostile reception as schools reopen | The Virginian-Pilot

December 31, 2019African American History, Black History ...

Three weeks later than originally scheduled, Norfolk schools were finally ready to open. Well, most of them. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] On Sept. 29, 1958, 48 of Norfolk’s schools welcomed students – but the doors of six were padlocked and under police guard. Maury, Norview and Granby high schools and Northside, Norview and Blair junior highs remained […]

U.N. Peacekeepers in Haiti Said to Have Fathered Hundreds of Children | The New York Times

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019Haiti

Women and girls were left behind to face poverty, social stigma and single motherhood in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti fathered and left behind hundreds of children, researchers found in a newly released academic study, leaving mothers struggling with stigma, poverty and single parenthood after the men departed […]

Halima Aden Is First Black Woman In Hijab To Grace Cover Of Essence Magazine | HuffPost

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019African American Activist, African American Athletes

The model, who is Muslim, has broken multiple barriers in the fashion industry. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Model Halima Aden shattered yet another barrier in the fashion industry this week, becoming the first Black woman in a hijab to grace the cover of Essence magazine. Halima, who is Muslim, is featured on the front of Essence’s January […]

After the Eviction Notice | The New York Times

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019African American Commuities, African American Families ...

In North Charleston, S.C., a struggling family pulls together for the bitter experience of moving out. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Shanatea Turner’s landlord filed eviction papers against her in mid-November. By early December, the pile of belongings she had no choice but to throw out was starting to grow on the curb. And the family she had […]

The quiet brilliance of Kenan Thompson | The Washington Post

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019African American Entertainment

How SNL’s longest-tenured cast member went from child star to the sketch show’s indispensable steady hand. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] NEW YORK — Kenan Thompson is a sketch-comedy savant. He’s seen how the tiniest diversion — uttering an errant word, glancing in the wrong direction, taking a half-second too long to rip off tearaway clothes — can […]

She was on stage during MLK’s ‘I’ve a Dream Speech’ but little is said of the first black woman federal judge | Face2Face Africa

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019African American History, Black History

At a time when segregation against Blacks was highly prevalent, Constance Baker Motley, a civil rights lawyer and trailblazer, made history as the first Black woman to become a federal judge in the US. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] In 1966, Motley was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to become the first black woman to hold the […]