When Kimberly Peeler-Allen was in the fourth grade, she had to pick someone to research for Women’s History Month. Her mother had a thought: Why not Shirley Chisholm? For Peeler-Allen, 47, the link was personal. Like Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black candidate to seek a major political party’s […]
Culture
Posted inCulture, History, Rural Issues
The Fight to Protect One of America’s Last Historic Black Communities
ROYAL, Florida — The calmness of the wind reverberated across the burial ground as Beverly Steele motioned to her mother’s grave in Oak Hill Cemetery. Three months ago, they buried her here, just 12 days shy of her 102nd birthday. It’s not uncommon for residents in the majority-Black, unincorporated community of Royal, Florida, to live […]
Posted inCulture, History, Rural Issues
A Florida Community Faces Erasure. Residents Are Honoring Its History.
If you ask any native, they all know the history of Royal, Florida, mostly because they are living descendants of it. As 67-year-old minister Janice Rivers put it: “There was not one corner that you could go to where the individuals didn’t know each other’s names or their history. You could talk to the elders […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Partner Content
Black LGBTQ+ Youth Need Spaces That Embrace Them Fully, Researchers Say
Originally published by The 19th Twenty-one percent of Black trans, nonbinary and questioning youth have made a suicide attempt in the last year, nearly half said they felt unsafe at school, and 64% said they had encountered transphobia, according to two recent reports that advocates say should serve as a call to action for LGBTQ+ […]
Posted inCulture, History, Partner Content
‘Opera Has Never Been White’: The Invisible Legacy of Black Women in Classical Music
Originally published by The 19th It was 1781 when a 14-year-old girl made her debut as an opera soloist in Saint-Domingue, the former French colony now called Haiti. She was a free person of color, the first person of African descent to star as the soloist in a French opera, and soon became the main […]
Posted inCulture, History
Biddy Mason Helped Build Downtown Los Angeles. Her Descendants Want You To Learn More.
This story originally published in 2024. Cheryl Cox was in the fourth grade when she spotted her “Grandma Biddy’s” name printed on a page of a textbook. The information was short, incomplete, and placed along the book’s spine as if the real estate mogul who helped build downtown Los Angeles was an afterthought. Prior to […]
Posted inHistory
Black and Indigenous Activists Unite to Eradicate Racist Landmarks
The waters in and around the United States have had a long history of claiming Black life since the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Along the Kansas and Missouri border, a small, unassuming creek is a part of this lineage, researchers say. For years, Johnson County, Kansas, residents believed the Big Negro Creek that cut through their […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Partner Content, Sports
Brittney Griner’s Return to the School That Didn’t Always Embrace Her
Originally published by The 19th When basketball star Brittney Griner left Baylor University in 2013, she was one of the most decorated student-athletes in the school’s history, with accolades that included NCAA Division I Defensive Player of the Year and NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player. But Griner had a complicated relationship with her Baptist […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Partner Content
Leaving the Church Isn’t So Simple for LGBTQ+ Black Christians
Originally published by The 19th When Karmen Michael Smith moved to New York City in 2003, he joined a new progressive Baptist church. He was raised with the understanding that if he wanted to find community in a new place, he needed to find a “church home.” But in a city known for progressive views, […]
Posted inCulture, History
One Family’s Quest for Reparations: ‘We Owe it Gracie’
Candice Hammons’ curiosity about the history of the maternal side of her close-knit family unearthed a mystery along Texas’ Neches River. It all started with a simple ancestry test in 2018. Her niece had just completed a DNA kit from 23andMe and her excitement was contagious. For Hammons, it wasn’t just about learning where she […]
