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Black History

Lorraine Hansberry at an NAACP rally in New York City, 1959.

Lorraine Hansberry’s Radical Imagination

By Commentaries/Opinions

For the playwright and activist, neither liberal reform nor countercultural art were enough. The very foundations of American democracy needed to be transformed. By Elias Rodriques, The Nation — In October of 1964, three months after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Lorraine Hansberry’s play The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opened on Broadway. At the time, Hansberry was already famous for A Raisin in the Sun, but the intervening years had…

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Black Like Who? Image by Bee Harris for NPR

Black Like Who?

By Reparations

Reparations And The Elusive Definition of Black Identity By Gene Bemby, NPR — Black folks have officially been categorized by the government as a bunch of different things, depending on the political moment. During the very first U.S. census back in 1790, it was simply “slaves.” In 1840, it was “free colored males and females” and, of course, slaves. What was “black,” “mulatto,” “quadroon” and “octoroon” in 1890…

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President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. August 6, 1965.

Many Say Education of King’s Life, Legacy Remains Critical for Young People

By News & Current Affairs

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent — More than a half-century after the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many of America’s youth are still in the dark about the life and legacy of the nation’s foremost civil rights leader. Brainly, the world’s largest online learning platform, recently surveyed more than 1,700 U.S. students to understand better what they know – and don’t know – about…

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Stewart's Canal in Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument

Harriet Tubman and a National Legacy of Midnight Skies and Silent Stars

By Commentaries/Opinions, News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Todd Lookingbill, HNN — Cynthia Erivo, who is nominated for best actress in a leading role in this weekend’s Oscars, stars in the gripping biopic “Harriet.” The movie, which tells the story of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, captures the miraculous physical, emotional, and spiritual journey of Harriet Tubman as she escapes from slavery to become an American icon. Of course, the horrors of slavery and the courage of the enslaved heroes that…

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