Slavery -

11 charts that track the progress America has made in racial equality — and all the visceral ways we still have left to go | Business Insider

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020African American History

February is Black History Month, when Americans celebrate the achievements of well-known black figures and the progress that has been made so far for the US black population. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] There have been improvements in different areas of living (such as black employment and earnings) since the 1960s, when many of the government tools tracking […]

Nearly 100 Years After Tulsa Massacre, City Plans to Search Cemetery for Victims | The New York Times

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020African American History, Black History

In one of the worst instances of racist violence in American history, a group of white people slaughtered black residents of Tulsa. For decades, city leaders rarely acknowledged it in public. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Archaeologists plan to excavate part of a cemetery in Tulsa, Okla., to see if it holds the remains of black residents slaughtered […]

Biography of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad | ThoughtCo.

February 6, 2020February 6, 2020African American History, Black History ...

Magical realism meets real life in the acclaimed journalist’s debut novel about American slaves escaping to the north [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] William Still (October 7, 1821–July 14, 1902) was a prominent abolitionist who coined the term Underground Railroad and, as one of the chief “conductors” in Pennsylvania helped thousands of people get free and settled away […]

The 15th Amendment Was Ratified 150 Years Ago, but the Fight to Protect Black Voters Continues | Teen Vogue

February 4, 2020February 4, 2020African American History

OG History is a Teen Vogue series where we unearth history not told through a white, cis-hetero-patriarchal lens. In this edition, Jameelah Nasheed explains how the fight for Black voters’ rights has changed in the 150 years since the 15th Amendment was ratified. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] On February 3, 1870 — 150 years ago today — […]

A look at the Casual Killing Act of 1669 that made it legal to kill a slave at will | Face2Face Africa

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020Slavery

What escapes many people is that the whimsical killing of enslaved Blacks in the U.S. during slavery, and even after by white folks without punitive consequence is based on laws passed by white politicians, who happened to be plantation owners as well. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] One such devious law is the Casual Killing Act of 1669 […]

The Names of 1.8 Million Emancipated Slaves Are Now Searchable in the World’s Largest Genealogical Database, Helping African Americans Find Lost Ancestors | Open Culture

January 5, 2020January 23, 2020African American History, Reconstruction ...

The successes of the Freedman’s Bureau, initiated by Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and first administered under Oliver Howard’s War Department, are all the more remarkable considering the intense popular and political opposition to the agency. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Under Lincoln’s successor, impeached Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson, the Bureau at times became a hostile entity to the […]

What everyone should know about Reconstruction 150 years after the 15th Amendment’s ratification | The Conversation

January 5, 2020January 5, 2020African American History, Slavery

I’ll never forget a student’s response when I asked during a middle school social studies class what they knew about black history: “Martin Luther King freed the slaves.” [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929, more than six decades after the time of enslavement. To me, this comment underscored how closely Americans […]

‘The Slaves Dread New Year’s Day the Worst’: The Grim History of January 1 | Time

December 31, 2019December 31, 2019African American History, Black History ...

Americans are likely to think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as a time to celebrate the fresh start that a new year represents, but there is also a troubling side to the holiday’s history. In the years before the Civil War, the first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking […]

Danny Glover, national activists converge on Evanston as city funds reparations with cannabis tax | Chicago Sun Times

December 14, 2019December 14, 2019Reparations, Slavery

The north suburb, with its historic passage last month of legislation creating a $10 million reparations fund seeded by cannabis sales, drew activists and scholars to a “Reparations Town Hall” Wednesday night, keynoted by actor Danny Glover. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Actor Danny Glover told an Evanston town hall Wednesday night the Chicago suburb will go down […]

We need to talk about slavery’s impact on all of us | The Guardian

November 11, 2019November 11, 2019African American History, Reparations

How should we address the longterm trauma that was caused? As professor of the history of slavery, I aim to find out