By Dr. Julianne Malveaux — Women won the right to vote a century ago. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment passed. The white women’s equal rights struggle began in 1776,…
By Dr. Julianne Malveaux — Women won the right to vote a century ago. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment passed. The white women’s equal rights struggle began in 1776,…
In principle, white Americans support efforts to end racism. But in practice, they have long been unwilling to support the fundamental change needed to do that. Will this year’s events…
By Christiana Best-Giacomini, Hartford Courant — When most Americans hear “affirmative action,” they often think the phrase is referring to a policy that protects African Americans. What many Americans don’t know is that affirmative actions are policies that were made by white people, to benefit white people, exclusively. Moreover, due to the insidious nature of how these policies and practices are integrated into American institutions and culture, white people continue…
By Darryl Pinckney, NYREV — I will look for you in the stories of new kings. Juneteenth isn’t mentioned in the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois or Carter Woodson, the founder of The Journal of Negro History. I haven’t yet come across a description of the first Juneteenth celebrations equivalent to Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s report of the ceremonies for the Emancipation Proclamation as it was read aloud on Port Royal…
Preserving black history as “an act of liberation” By Nell Porter Brown, Harvard Magazine — Isaac Royall Sr. built a fortune on his Antigua sugar plantation and returned to Boston in 1737 to settle into an opulent Georgian mansion in what’s now Medford, Massachusetts. To operate the surrounding 500-acre farm, enormous by colonial-era standards, he also shipped north across the ocean “a parcel of negroes.” Those 27 enslaved people were plucked…
By Marc Parry, The Chronicle of Higher Education — As Shirley N. Weber built the Africana-studies department at San Diego State University in the 1970s, she spent lots of time defending…
Will young, Black Americans turn out to vote in November? By David C. Barker and Sam Fulwood – Most political analysts define “swing voters” as those who swing their support…
By Danny Glover United Nations Ambassador for the International Decade for People of African Descent, Board Member Institute for Policy Studies — The public lynching of George Floyd pierced deep into the “souls of Black folks” compelling a thorough-going examination of the flawed foundation, values, systems and symbols of white supremacy and structural/institutional racism in these United States. A massive Black Lives Matter-led, multiracial, cross-generational movement has erupted in cities large…
The renowned Actor/Activist Danny Glover has issued a public statement expressing his strong support for reparations for people of African descent and calling on the US Congress to pass the…
By Tyina Steptoe — The sound of Public Enemy’s 1989 song “Fight the Power” blared as face-masked protesters in Washington, D.C. broke into a spontaneous rendition of the electric slide dance near the White House. It was the morning of June 14, and an Instagram user captured the moment, commenting: “If Trump is in the White House this morning he’s being woken up by … a Public Enemy dance party.” View…
Q&A with Caitlin Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a historian of 18th and 19th century U.S. history with a focus on the development…
These young politicians are following in the footsteps of a shortlist of Black Americans elected to the United States Capitol. By Kelsey Minor, The Grio — You may not know the name Hiram Revels but 150 years ago he became the first Black member of the United States Congress. A Black Republican from Mississippi, Revels was sworn into office although there were heavy objections from the southern White men who…