Photos by Kuwilileni Hauwanga/Capital B “Beautiful culture.” “Beautiful art.” “Great representation.” Those are phrases museum goer Dajanae Prude, 28, used to describe the new Black college exhibit at National Museum of African American History. The exhibit uses sounds, artifacts, documentaries and pictures to tell the story of how historically Black colleges and universities have remained […]
History
Posted inCommunity, Culture, History
The Mardi Gras Indian Tradition Carrying Generations of Black History
NEW ORLEANS — From the porch of his family’s home in Uptown New Orleans, Gerard “Little Bo” Dollis remembers being small enough to see only feathers — plumes of red and gold that blocked out the morning sun and the party bus idling behind his father. “You couldn’t even see the bus,” said Dollis, also […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
100 Years After a Black Family Was Forced Out, a Descendant Sues a California City
Sidney and Iréne Dearing, along with their two small children, faced lynching and bomb threats after they settled in a “sundown town” in California in 1924. As the first Black homeowners in Piedmont, a wealthy white suburb of Oakland, they endured a racial terror campaign that included a mob of 500 people showing up on […]
Posted inCulture, History, Partner Content
Detroit Heard King’s Dream First. These Black Women are Carrying It Forward.
This story was originally reported by Ebony JJ Curry of The 19th. Meet Ebony and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Detroit was the first place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an early version of what would become his “I Have a Dream” speech. He recited it on June 23, […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Stevie Wonder’s Battle for MLK Day and the New Challenges to King’s Legacy
Stevie Wonder’s new album, Hotter Than July, had been burning up the charts for months by Jan. 15, 1981. But something bigger than music was on the artist’s mind that day. Along with other Black cultural giants, the 30-year-old was leading a rally of approximately 100,000 people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Years […]
Posted inHistory
As Federal Sites Remove Black History, Communities Organize to Fight Back
It all started with a QR code. When Gerry James learned this summer that signs had been posted at National Park Service sites encouraging visitors to use a QR code to report information that could be considered “negative about either past or living Americans,” he wanted to change the conservation. He felt as if the […]
Posted inHistory
National Parks Drop Free MLK Day and Juneteenth Entry, Further Erasing Black History
Alan Spears remembers visiting Gettysburg National Military Park with his parents in the 1970s. They wanted something educational, free, and fun to do with their only son, and the park was an obvious choice, given Spears’ interests — his favorite television show as a child was The Rat Patrol, about soldiers during World War II. […]
Posted inEquity, History, Wealth Gap
Will Zohran Mamdani Make New York the First City to Confront Its Debt to Slavery?
Reparations for slavery and historic discrimination against African Americans once seemed like a pipe dream. But momentum for it has been building in the past five years in cities across America, including New York City, which has deep ties to slavery and has become an important testing ground of whether America is ready to make […]
Posted inHistory
Founded by Freedmen, Forgotten by Textbooks: The Men Reviving Mound Bayou
MOUND BAYOU, Mississippi — On an early summer morning, Hermon Johnson Jr. walked the halls of the former band hall of the John F. Kennedy High School surrounded by archival photographs and rotating exhibits. The historical records tell the story of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. The small but mighty town is one of America’s first all-Black […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Ghana’s President Calls Slave Trade ‘Greatest Crime,’ Pushes U.N. for Reparations
In a first coordinated African-led effort at the United Nations, leaders have declared the Transatlantic Slave Trade as “the greatest crime against humanity” and called for reparations. African leaders recently took the global stage at the U.N.’s General Assembly in New York, where Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, announced plans to submit the first formal […]