black history
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Civil Rights Institute Cancels Gala Honoring Angela Davis After Outcry From Jewish Community
One of the nation’s most prominent civil rights museums has reneged on its plans to celebrate one of America’s most outspoken freedom fighters, igniting a national controversy after seemingly genuflecting to grumbles from the area’s Jewish community. On Jan. 4, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute released a weirdly nonspecific statement canceling its plans to bestow…
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A Rosa Parks Feature Biopic May Be Coming to Theaters for the First Time
Rosa Parks’ legacy has been depicted in several forms, including the 2001 Academy Award-nominated documentary Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks, and the 2002 TV movie The Rosa Parks Story, starring Angela Bassett. Still, we have yet to see an epic feature biopic on the big screen about the iconic civil rights activist. Winter…
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8-Year-Old Girl Dressed Up as Michelle Obama for Cultural Heroes Day and Our Lives Will Never Be the Same Again
SPOILER WARNING: Black Girls Are Magic. For Cultural Heroes Day, 8-year-old Ella-Lorraine Brown decided to tap into our forever first lady Michelle Obama’s formative years as a freshman at Princeton University. And we’re all better for it. “She was really in awe of the idea that with hard work you could become anything,” Ella-Lorraine’s mother…
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55 Years Ago, Someone Blamed a Bombing on a Racist Politician
Now, we know. When 19 sticks of dynamite planted by Klansmen exploded inside the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, killing 11-year old Carol Denise McNair, and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, it was not the first time white supremacists had bombed a home or place of worship in…
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Donald Trump Conveniently Ignores Anniversary of One of America's Worst Acts of Terror
Three days before a national tragedy would shake the entire world, on September 8, 2001, George Bush issued a proclamation recognizing one of the darkest hours in American history. On September 15, 2013, Barack Obama’s White House sent out an official statement recognizing the same solemn day. George W. Bush’s Proclamation 7460 reads, in part:…
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Simone Biles Is Still Making History, Is 1st Woman to Win 5 U.S. All-Around Championships
It’s still Simone Biles season, and the American gymnast is still kicking ass and taking names, which culminated in yet another historic career achievement at this year’s United States Gymnastics Championships on Sunday. The U.S. Olympic team declared that Biles is the first woman to ever win five U.S. Gymnastics all-around titles (h/t Bleacher Report.)…
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Take a Bow: Rihanna Is the 1st Black Woman to Grace the Cover of British Vogue's September Issue
When Edward Enninful took over the reins at British Vogue, we knew that big things were in store. Of the 10 issues he’s produced since becoming editor-in-chief, five have featured women of color, already marking his tenure as the first black man to hold the position one of inclusion and positive change. Supermodel Adwoa Aboah…
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Madam C.J. Walker Makes It to Netflix: Octavia Spencer to Play America's First Black Beauty Mogul
Here’s a television event bound to be binge-worthy: on Sunday, Netflix announced an upcoming limited series event on the life of black hair-care pioneer and self-made millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, starring Octavia Spencer as the famed mogul. The show is executive produced in part by Spencer and LeBron James, and based on the book On…