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The Inkwell: Where Are They Now?
The Inkwell, a coming-of-age story about Drew Tate and his family’s trip to Martha’s Vineyard, turns 20 this week. During a two-week vacation in 1976 at the affluent black enclave, Drew goes lobster diving, pranks a new friend’s cheating husband, fawns over a local beauty, and loses his virginity. As we celebrate the film’s anniversary,…
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15 Black Environmentalists Show Why You Should Care About Earth Day
Climate change and the environment may not sound like priority issues for communities of color, but they should be. Consider this: Because communities of color are more likely to suffer the health effects of pollution and are less likely to have access to fresh foods—which in turn leads to health issues such as asthma, obesity,…
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10 Famous Black Men Who Took Drastic Measures to Improve Their Health
Mainstream narratives about black men and their health include bloated beer bellies, postponed doctors’ appointments and high blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading causes of death for black men between the ages of 35 and 65 are heart disease and cancer (pdf). In part 2 of The Root…
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Al Sharpton: The Teflon Preacher With 99 Lives—at Least
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s party got crashed this week when the Smoking Gun published—in a story conveniently timed to coincide with this week’s gathering of Sharpton’s National Action Network—official documents showing that going back to the ’80s, he went to work for the FBI as an informant against organized crime in New York. It’s an…
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Top Black Ad Men and Women You Won’t See on Mad Men
As much as we love the show Mad Men, the popular TV series has never really given pioneering black advertising executives their proper respect. As The Root’s article “The Other Mad Men” pointed out in 2010, Madison Avenue was not as lily white as the popular cable-TV show implies. With Mad Men heading into its…
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The First Ones: 17 African Americans Who Broke Barriers
On April 13, 1997, Tiger Woods became the first African American to win the Masters. Here are 16 other black trailblazers who have broken barriers and set records for future African Americans to follow in their footsteps. Angelou is the first African-American poet to participate in a presidential inaugural ceremony. She recited her poem “On…
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For Spring Break, Howard Students Choose Service
It’s a 20-year tradition for students of Howard University: Skip the spring-break beach trips—and, really, any “break” at all—and spend a week volunteering in communities in the U.S. and the Caribbean. This year more than 400 students participating in the Washington, D.C., HBCU’s Alternative Spring Break program embarked on service projects in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit,…
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The Real-Life Women of Scandal
During the 1920s, the banana-skirt-wearing dancer-singer became a sensation in Europe for her unapologetic display of sensuality. Despite being a major star in integrated Paris, she still found racism rampant back home, and her sophistication and theatrical prowess were rejected when she tried to return to the American stage in the late 1930s. The singer-actress…
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Unsung Black Heroines
For Women’s History Month, The Root has been running profiles of women on our Facebook page who left an indelible mark in their fields but whose names may not be familiar. Here are those profiles collected into a slideshow. Civil rights activist Richardson led the “Cambridge movement,” based in Maryland. Trained as a social worker,…
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Ageless Beauties: 14 Women Who Are Aging Wonderfully
Diana Ross turns 70 this week. Patti LaBelle will join her in the septuagenarian club in a few months. Here’s a look at a few of their peers who must have found the fountain of youth and are giving credence to the adage “Black don’t crack.” It’s hard to believe that the queen of Motown…