-
Unearthing a Historic Free African-American Community
A backhoe gouged a neat T-shaped scar into a grassy lot in downtown Hampton, Va., revealing … dirt. You could see dark patches in the soil—some circular, others square, most bloblike—but it was still just dirt to the layperson. To archaeologist Dave Hazzard, though, these splotches may be man-made “features,” or possible evidence of one…
-
Giving Young Killers a Chance at Redemption
My friend Yuko was trying to convince me to watch a Web video, a TED talk by some guy who said some inspiring stuff. I like watching videos, but I don’t get home to New York that much. I had a only few hours left in my visit, so I was anxious to hit the…
-
Neglected Cemeteries Reveal History’s Priority
I’m into cemeteries. This is an accidental development. When my dad died in 2011, he left behind a photo of himself and eight other African-American seniors standing shoulder to shoulder behind two headstones. One is inscribed “Matthew Palmer. Died Feb 26, 1927, Aged 86.” I knew only that Matthew was my great-grandfather. No one else…
-
Slavery Museum, Once a Dream, Plagued by Money Trouble
(The Root)—In late September, a TV news crew from Richmond, Va.’s WTVR cornered former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder and his attorney, Joe Morrissey, outside a courthouse in Caroline County. The encounter was classic journalist versus dissembling pols—and by “classic” I mean sad and predictable. A circuit court judge had just ruled against Wilder’s United States…
-
Legacy of Slavery Still Monumental
(The Root) — Last month, representatives from member states of CARICOM (the Caribbean Community and Common Market) and half a dozen other nations gathered in tiny St. Vincent and the Grenadines to discuss an idea regarded by some in the United States as radical, fringe, even nuts: reparations for “native genocide and slavery.” Such a…
-
Obama's Real Problem on Capitol Hill? Race
(The Root) — They know we can’t prove it. We can deduce and infer from their actions, statements and policies. But we can’t confirm that congressional Republicans, a bloc of nearly unbroken whiteness, and their media hatchet people are stealthily deploying race — blackness — to obstruct President Barack Obama at every turn. But obstructionists…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
