civil rights movement
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Sweet Home Alabama?
I have a complicated relationship with Alabama because Alabama is a complicated place. Though I’ve lived less time there than anywhere else in the world that could be considered home (fall of 1993 through spring 1997 and only two summers, ever), it is also the state where I went to high school and where my…
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Unita Blackwell, Civil Rights Activist and the 1st Black Woman to Be Elected a Mayor in Mississippi, Dies at 86
Unita Blackwell, a veteran of the civil rights movement and winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant who was the first black woman to be elected a mayor in the state of Mississippi, has died. She was 86. Blackwell’s son confirmed that she died Monday, according to the Associated Press. Blackwell was born in the impoverished…
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Chris McNair, Father of 16th Street Church Bombing Victim Denise McNair, Dies at 93
His eldest child, an 11-year-old girl named Denise McNair, was brutally taken from him and their family by a group of homegrown terrorists known as the Ku Klux Klan in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham, Ala.,’s 16th Street Baptist Church. Now, Chris McNair—father, husband and history-making political figure in his own right—has died at his…
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Sign of the Times: Rep. John Lewis Admits He's Less Hopeful in 2019 Than He Was on Bloody Sunday
If there’s anyone who can serve as a barometer on how messed up things have gotten in this country, it would be U.S. House Rep. John Lewis. And according to the Civil Rights trailblazer known for getting into good trouble, the U.S. is now in “deep trouble.” In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lewis…
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Taraji P. Henson Brings Ann Atwater's Activism to Life in The Best of Enemies
It is a biblical fact that Taraji P. Henson has never been the one, and so it is fitting for her to play activist and disruptor Ann Atwater in the new film The Best of Enemies. Atwater was a civil rights activist who wasn’t here for anyone’s shit, making it her mission to make sure her…
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Fire Burns Down Main Building of Historic Civil Rights Space, the Highlander Center
Early Friday morning, a building at the Highlander Research and Education Center, one of the nation’s oldest social justice institutions and training spaces, in New Market, Tenn., was engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. A press release from Highlander notes that only one building was burned (one out of 10 on the organization’s…
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Childhood Home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sold to National Park Service
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the childhood home of Martin Luther King Jr. has been sold to the National Park Service. The home, which had been owned by the King family since 1909, was sold for $1.9 million to the National Park Foundation, who then transferred ownership to the National Park Service. For the past…