Featured stories—Trending
Fred Gray and the Law of Black Survival
From Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin to the men ab
Before the Civil Rights Movement Had a Name, There Was Octavius V. Catto
Teacher, athlete, organizer, military officer, and
The Target Was Black Life in Public
The alleged New Orleans plot was not only a threat
The Man They Would Not Let Fly
Edward Dwight was nearly written into American his
George Jackson and the Making of a Prison Revolutionary
He entered California’s carceral machine as a te
A Seat in the New South
Long before Montgomery, Black riders in Richmond t
Ottobah Cugoano and the Case Against Empire
Long before abolition became respectable, Cugoano
Duncanson Painted Freedom Into the American Landscape
Before most institutions knew what to do with Blac
Power Broker, Freedom Witness
From a Mississippi courtroom to the birth of the C
She Saw What the Cameras Usually Missed
In Doris Derby’s photographs, the civil rights m
Fred Gray and the Law of Black Survival
From Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin to the men abused by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Gray spent seven decades forcing American law to confront the harms it had long protected.
Before the Civil Rights Movement Had a Name, There Was Octavius V. Catto
Teacher, athlete, organizer, military officer, and voting-rights crusader, Catto understood that freedom without power was only a new mask for the old order.
The Target Was Black Life in Public
The alleged New Orleans plot was not only a threat against a crowd. It was a threat against Black visibility, celebration, and belonging.
The Man They Would Not Let Fly
Edward Dwight was nearly written into American history as the first Black astronaut. Instead, he spent decades sculpting the nation it refused to show him—one monument, one memor
George Jackson and the Making of a Prison Revolutionary
He entered California’s carceral machine as a teenager sentenced for a street crime. He emerged, before the state killed him at 29, as one of the fiercest political writers of th
A Seat in the New South
Long before Montgomery, Black riders in Richmond tested the meaning of emancipation on the city’s streetcars—and forced the question of equal passage into the open.
Ottobah Cugoano and the Case Against Empire
Long before abolition became respectable, Cugoano argued that the slave trade was not a regrettable excess but a system of robbery, piracy, and national guilt. His life turned witn
Duncanson Painted Freedom Into the American Landscape
Before most institutions knew what to do with Black genius in oil and light, Robert Seldon Duncanson made himself impossible to ignore—building a career across Cincinnati, Canada
Power Broker, Freedom Witness
From a Mississippi courtroom to the birth of the Congressional Black Caucus, Charles Diggs tried to turn moral urgency into federal action—and paid a steep price when the machine
She Saw What the Cameras Usually Missed
In Doris Derby’s photographs, the civil rights movement is not only marches and martyrdom. It is children, classrooms, clinics, churchyards, cotton fields, and the stubborn daily
How New Yorker Howard Bennet fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures.
How New Yorker Howard Bennet fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures.
Business
Black entpreneurs and business leaders who help shape and drive our economies.
Where the Neighborhood Reads Aloud
Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books is a Germantown storefront built like a living room—part café, part bookstore, part civic commons—where Marc Lamont Hill’s public intellectua
The Hot Dog Gospel In OKC
Monte’s Gourmet Dogs serves friendship first—and then, if you’re lucky, the best gator étouffée you didn’t know you needed.
The Crown Makers: Historic and Contemporary Black-Owned Milliners
The Crown Makers: Historic and Contemporary Black-Owned Milliners
Rooms of Our Own
Black hoteliers across the United States are quietly remaking the hospitality industry—one Brooklyn brownstone, Virginia horse farm and Mississippi inn at a time.
Brewing Black Futures: How Five Black-Owned Cafés Are Redefining American Coffee Culture
From Oakland to Chicago, these entrepreneurs are stitching community, culture and commerce into every latte — proving that for many Black business owners, a café is more than ju
Inside the Quiet Dismantling of America’s Only Minority-Business Agency — and the Entrepreneurs Left Stranded
The Quiet Dismantling of America’s Only Minority-Business Agency AND the Entrepreneurs Left Stranded Share fb tw ln pin fb tw ln pin By KOLUMN Magazine The first sign that someth
Where the Neighborhood Reads Aloud
Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books is a Germantown storefront built like a living room—part café, part bookstore, part civic commons—where Marc Lamont Hill’s public intellectua
The Hot Dog Gospel In OKC
Monte’s Gourmet Dogs serves friendship first—and then, if you’re lucky, the best gator étouffée you didn’t know you needed.
The Crown Makers: Historic and Contemporary Black-Owned Milliners
The Crown Makers: Historic and Contemporary Black-Owned Milliners
Rooms of Our Own
Black hoteliers across the United States are quietly remaking the hospitality industry—one Brooklyn brownstone, Virginia horse farm and Mississippi inn at a time.
Brewing Black Futures: How Five Black-Owned Cafés Are Redefining American Coffee Culture
From Oakland to Chicago, these entrepreneurs are stitching community, culture and commerce into every latte — proving that for many Black business owners, a café is more than ju
Inside the Quiet Dismantling of America’s Only Minority-Business Agency — and the Entrepreneurs Left Stranded
The Quiet Dismantling of America’s Only Minority-Business Agency AND the Entrepreneurs Left Stranded Share fb tw ln pin fb tw ln pin By KOLUMN Magazine The first sign that someth
Art
This month, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery is recognizing Claudette Colvin in visual fashion through its acquisition of “Rooted”, an artistic tribute to the civil rights pioneer by Traci Mims, the talented multi-genre artist represented by Black Art in America.
History
