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I'm Black and I Think I Have Presidential Roots
(The Root) — Right now there’s a lot of popular interest in the life of President Abraham Lincoln, due in no small part to the recent success of Steven Spielberg’s award-winning 2012 film, Lincoln. I share that interest, and in 2009 even presented a documentary on PBS about his legacy called Looking for Lincoln. Below,…
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Tarantino Talks Sequel to 'Basterds' and 'Django'
(The Root) — If you thought Quentin Tarantino was done with historical revenge fantasies after Inglourious Basterds and his latest, Django Unchained — a “postmodern, slave-narrative Western,” in the words of The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr. — you’d be wrong. The spaghetti Western-inspired Django Unchained, for which Tarantino won an Academy Award for…
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How Do I Trace My Former-Slave Ancestor?
Updated Aug. 30, 2013: This Labor Day holiday weekend will bring many families together at picnics, barbecues and celebrations. Such gatherings are the perfect time for the genealogy-minded to research their roots: Get out the old photo albums, ask questions of kin with long memories, go digging for documents in the attic of your grandma’s…
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Who Was the Black Swallow of Death?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. (The Root) — Amazing Facts About…
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Who Really Invented the 'Talented Tenth'?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. (The Root) — Amazing Facts About…
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Exactly How ‘Black’ Is Black America?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. (The Root) — 100 Amazing Facts About…
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How Do I Find Famous Haitian Ancestor?
(The Root) – I am fascinated by the history of Haiti, which was the first black-led republic in modern history. That legacy was covered in my PBS documentary series Black in Latin America. I’ve also enjoyed reading about it in two excellent books — Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, by Laurent Dubois, and The Slaves…
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Will Census Fiasco Stop My Ancestor Search?
(The Root) — Sometimes, when one is researching one’s family tree, the paper trail leads to a dead end. Such is the case with the next question for our “Tracing Your Roots” genealogy-advice column. “I cannot find my grandmother’s family before 1900, although I did find a Mississippi marriage record for her from 1892, and…
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Why Was Cotton 'King'?
(The Root) — 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro No. 17: How much did the cotton industry shape American history and the lives of enslaved Africans? “C” stands for Cotton. Its beautiful bolls, And bales of rich value, the Master controls. Of “mud-stills” he prates, and would haughtily bring The world to acknowledge that “Cotton is King.”…
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How to Trace Your Roots
(The Root) — How exciting it is to me that we at The Root are kicking off Black History Month by inaugurating our new genealogy column, “Tracing Your Roots”! Researching my own family’s roots has been a passion of mine ever since my father showed my brother and me an obituary for (and a photograph…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
