black history
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5 Years After the Unmarked Graves of 1,000 Enslaved People Were Uncovered Near a Shell Refinery, Descendants Will Be Able to Pay Their Respects
Some five years ago, the unmarked graves of as many as 1,000 enslaved people who were forced to work in the fields of plantations in Ascension Parish, La., were uncovered by an archaeologist working for Shell Convent Refinery. The discovery was heralded by one expert as among the largest unknown burial grounds discovered in the…
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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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Watch: Ava DuVernay’s Ultimate Dream Is to Make Room for Other People of Color in Hollywood
Ava DuVernay is no stranger to making history. She’s the first black woman to be nominated for a best director Golden Globe (Selma), she’s the first black woman to win a best director prize at Sundance, and the first black female director to have her film be nominated for an Oscar. And, now, DuVernay is…
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Watch: This Black Doctor Gave Us the Blood Bank and Saved Thousands of Lives
Dr. Charles Drew was both a revolutionary in the medical field and a pioneer for black rights. And we’re honoring him this February for Black History Month.In 1940, Drew became the first African American to receive a doctorate in medical science from Columbia University in New York City. He then went on to revolutionize the…
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BNYFW: Pyer Moss Takes America
Pyer Moss designer Kerby Jean-Raymond swung for the fences with his 2018 Fall/Winter collection, and connected with a critical and commercial home run. For this collection, Jean-Raymond collaborated with both Reebok and ’90s hip-hop brand Cross Colours, leveraging big-brand distribution and recognition for the heavy financial lifting required to bring a fully realized collection to…
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Judge of Characters: The Whitewashing of Black History
This week, white people took their boldness to another level and delivered us a white version of what was said to be the true Queen Nefertiti. Expedition Unknown’s Josh Gates showed up to the Today show to share a bust he worked on with Egyptologist Aidan Dodson. And that’s exactly where things got awkward, you…
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Black History Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Relegated to a Single Month
Last year, Vice President Mike Pence commemorated the start of Black History Month by acknowledging Abraham Lincoln, a white man, for submitting the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Pence’s snubbing of black people happened on the same day President Donald Trump talked as if Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, writer and civil rights leader, were still alive…
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New Slave Narrative Tells Story of Woman Who Escaped to Freedom on Underground Railroad
A newly available slave narrative tells the story of a Maryland woman who escaped slavery and traveled the Underground Railroad on a yearslong journey to Auburn, N.Y. The 12-page manuscript was penned by Julia C. Ferris, a white teacher who sat down with a former slave named Jane Clark, and it was never available to…
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A Reporter May Have Found the Last American Slave Ship
In 1860, 52 years after the importation of human chattel was outlawed in the United States, the Clotilda, a two-masted schooner, sneaked into Mobile Bay near Mobile, Ala., returning from a secret mission in Benin, Africa. Captained by William Foster, the Clotilda unloaded its precious cargo: 110 kidnapped human beings. When federal authorities discovered that…
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Remembering a Pioneer: Civil Rights Attorney and Activist Frankie Muse Freeman Dies at 101
She was a fearless fighter for our freedom, and one of the first of her kind: She was Frankie Muse Freeman, a brilliant civil rights attorney, activist and icon. She died Friday, Jan. 12, at the age of 101. Born in segregated Virginia in 1916, Freeman was raised in a college-educated family, ultimately attending Hampton…