african american history
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Juneteenth Is Finally Entering the Mainstream American Consciousness. Now Make It An Official Federal Holiday
Forget the 4th of July! Juneteenth is the day that should be celebrated by all as a pivotal point in America’s freedom story. One-hundred-and-fifty-five years ago this year, the last of the enslaved black population in Galveston, Texas received word that they were officially free. Despite the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which…
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Oprah Winfrey Kicks Off Her New Book Club on Apple TV+ With Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer
Like so many other companies getting into the content game, the traditionally hardware-focused Apple launched Apple TV+ today with a promising partnership with the master of the media universe, Oprah Winfrey, whose Oprah’s Book Club will now be available to more than 900 million iPhones worldwide. Everyone’s favorite billionaire sat down with award-winning author, essayist…
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Historic Ebony Photos Set to Be Auctioned Off for at Least $13,000,000
Photos from the Ebony magazine archives detailing some 70 years of African American life and history, including images of Emmett Till, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Coretta Scott King and so many more, are scheduled to be auctioned off next month in Chicago. The collection, up for sale to pay off secured creditors, or lien holders,…
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Last Known U.S. Slave Ship, the Clotilda, Said to Have Been Discovered in Alabama
Researchers at the Alabama Historical Commission recently announced that they’ve located the remains of the last known ship known to bring enslaved Africans to what we now call the United States. As National Geographic notes, slave importing was officially banned in 1808, though an illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade continued for many years. In 1860, some…
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Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters Return, More Relevant Than Ever
Respect your elders. I don’t know a child who wasn’t raised with that admonition, which in my household was often accompanied by a swat on the butt or a swift side-eye when due respect wasn’t paid. But it’s generally far later in life when most of us learn the value of also listening to our…
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Library of Congress Reveals Previously Unknown Portrait of Harriet Tubman in New, Digitized Album
It’s Harriet Tubman, the world’s No. 1 certified badass, as you’ve never seen her before. On Tuesday the Library of Congress announced that it had conserved and digitized a previously unknown portrait of the famed abolitionist and “conductor” of the Underground Railroad as part of an album to be exhibited in the Smithsonian’s National Museum…
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Call Me by My Name: Danai Gurira Writes About the Importance of Identity for Glamour Magazine
Fun fact: There was about a decade of my life where I didn’t like to be called by my given name. After an early childhood of correcting anyone who dared mispronounce it, I spent most of grammar school feeling burdened by a name seemingly so difficult, no one could be bothered to learn to say…
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Will Mississippi’s New Civil Rights Museum Tell the Truth About the State’s Troublesome Past?
Myrlie Evers-Williams once had a hard time understanding how her husband could still love their home state of Mississippi so deeply. After all, Medgar Evers grew up in the segregated South and, like many African Americans, left America to fight in Europe during World War II, only to return to a state where black veterans…
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‘I’m Black!’: Director Ava DuVernay Celebrates Her Heritage on Finding Your Roots
Ava DuVernay is black, y’all. The director and producer extraordinaire and all-around example of #BlackGirlMagic took a dive into her family history on Finding Your Roots with the show’s host, Henry Louis Gates Jr. In the dive into the past, DuVernay discovered that among her ancestors were white French slave owners who fled the revolt…
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Democrats in Mich. House of Representatives Push to Make African-American History Required Learning After Charlottesville, Va.
Following the violence of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Democrats in the Michigan House of Representatives are stepping up to the plate, pushing for legislation that would require African-American history to be taught in all public schools as a means to combat racism. “We all have to do a better job of getting…