history
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On the Closing of Bohemian Caverns and the Void It Leaves in DC
(This is long. And yes, that’s what she said.) Because I started blogging, a significant number of opportunities came my way. One of the most significant was my relationship with Bohemian Caverns, and the ownership team of Omrao Brown, Sashi Brown, and Jamal Starr, who all became family for me. In particular, Omrao Brown became…
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Seeking the Origins of a Pioneering Desegregationist
The paternal second great-grandfather of my wife, Donna Paulette Wysinger Wilson, is Edmond Edward Wysinger. He was a historical figure in California, having brought a lawsuit (Wysinger v. Crookshank) in 1890 to desegregate California schools so that his son Arthur could attend the local high school. We traced Edmond back to South Carolina, where he…
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Queen of the Courts: How Ora Washington Helped Philly ‘Forget the Depression’
Philadelphians had little to cheer about in the winter of 1932. Over 250,000 people—a quarter of the workforce—were unemployed, many more were working part time, and thousands had lost their savings with the collapse of several banks. For black Philadelphians, the Great Depression was even worse. Only 13 percent enjoyed full-time employment, 45 percent were…
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Who Murdered My Aunt in 1920s Detroit?
I have been tracing my family tree on Ancestry.com and I found out that my second great-aunt, Nannie Crenshaw, was killed in Wayne County, Mich., in 1920. If I want to find out if her killer was charged and convicted, what steps should I take next? I have sent you her death certificate. —Adrienne Rose…
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100 Years of Perpetual Occupation: Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy in Haiti
Last Friday, the dean of Harvard Law School, Martha Minow, endorsed the demands of student activists to change the school’s official shield, which contains the crest of Isaac Royall, a plantation and slave owner. The endorsement comes months after students at Princeton University made similar demands. They petitioned the university to rename the Woodrow Wilson…
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Ona Judge Staines: She Challenged George Washington and Won Her Freedom
On May 24, 1796, a runaway-slave advertisement was posted in the Pennsylvania Gazette by the steward at George Washington’s house in Philadelphia. It read: Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. She is of middle stature, slender,…
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Does a 19th-Century Census Record Prove My Interracial Ancestry?
I have been working on tracing my maternal grandfather’s line using Ancestry.com. I can say with confidence that I traced my great-grandfather George Biggs to the 1900 census, which also lists my grandfather “Levy” as his 10-year-old son. Going backward, I believe a white Biggs family (the patriarch named Morris), also from Pike County, Mo.,…
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Proud and Free in Spanish Fla.: Juan Bautista Whitten Led a Black Militia
On a summer’s day in 1798, María Rafaela Whitten stood in the doorway of a house in St. Augustine, Fla., owned by Don José Sánchez, one of the wealthiest Spanish planters in the community. Whitten, a free black woman in her early 40s, was waiting there for a young female slave apprenticed to her. Don…
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Is the Woman Who Inspired Beloved My Ancestor?
Could it be that I am descended from Margaret Garner, the real-life inspiration for the main character in Toni Morrison’s book Beloved? Born in 1834 in Boone County, Ky., Garner was an escaped slave who attempted to murder her four children rather than allow them to be captured and returned to slavery. In 1856, Garner and her…
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Cornelius Johnson and a Forgotten US Protest Against Hitler at the 1936 Olympics
The recent biopic The Race reminds us of Jesse Owens’ amazing feat in winning a then-record four track gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The movie accurately frames Owens’ (Stephan James) victories as a rebuke to the Nazi propaganda machine, which was trying to use the games to promote the myth of white supremacy. Claims of…