Forty years ago, a gang of Klansmen and Nazis murdered five communists in broad daylight. America has never been the same. By Shaun Assael and Peter Keating, Politico — “Death to the Klan!” On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters—some donning blue hard hats for protection—hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the…
History has always been a weapon in the hands of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Now, in his debut novel, the social critic and essayist sets out to recover those struggles for emancipation that have been lost to the past. By Elias Rodriques, The Nation — American history has always been a weapon in the hands of Ta-Nehisi Coates. As a blogger and columnist for The Atlantic, he wielded it to chronicle the long…
The director Roger Ross Williams on the Harlem ‘temple’ that has hosted legendary performers from James Brown to Lauryn Hill. By André Wheeler, The Guardian — The Apollo Theater is a living piece of black history. Located in the heart of Harlem on West 125th Street, the theater has operated as a refuge for black audiences and performers from its opening in 1934. Artists from James Brown and Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill have graced…
Congressman John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929 – October 27, 2019) By Herb Boyd — Unlike his often convulsive, tumultuous political career, former Congressman John Conyers, Jr. died peacefully in his sleep Sunday at his home in Detroit. The iconic and highly productive representative from Michigan was 90. More than half those 90 years were spent on the battleground for civil rights and public service, including 53 years as…
By James Pasley, Business Insider — In 2016, former first lady Michelle Obama declared as a sign of how far the nation has come: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” She was talking about the White House. And as the first African American first lady speaking to the Democratic National Convention, she struck a chord. Some fact checkers and political pundits may have raced…
By Attny. Nkechi Taifa — Congressman John Conyers, during the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus plenary on reparations which you chaired, I spoke of the words of Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of 14-year-old Emmett Till who in 1955 was abducted by whites and thrown into Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River. The only way her son’s beaten and horribly disfigured body could be identified was by a ring he wore on a finger….
Marking the 400-year African American struggle to survive and to be free of racism. By Ibram X. Kendi — Her name was Angela, one of the first known Africans in British North America. His name was John, the first known antiblack racist in colonial America. In 1619, this black woman and white man—what they embody—arrived months apart in 12-year-old Virginia, the first of the 13 British colonies that became the United States….
Like so many other black men in America, Elijah Cummings died too young. By Ibram X. Kendi — I had a 30-minute ride to the train station. I nestled into my seat, opened my phone, and saw that Representative Elijah Cummings had passed away. I gasped and covered my mouth. The driver peeked at me in his rear-view mirror. He saw me shaking my head and whispering what many Americans…
By Vijay Prashad, Independent Media Institute — If you ask an African migrant in Europe who came across the Mediterranean Sea in a boat if they would make the journey again, most of them would say “yes.” Many of them had been on vans and trucks that took them across the dangerous Sahara Desert, and many of them had beenon board vessels that struggled to get across the choppy waters….
The city of Charleston, South Carolina chosen for its “deep connection to slavery” and its legacies. By Skyler Baldwin, Charleston City Paper — The announcement came last week for a national forum, titled “Enslavement to Reparations: A 400 Year Journey for Justice,” discussing H.R. 40, introduced by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, to establish a commission to explore and discuss a national apology and options for reparations for slavery. This event was…
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