In April 1968, my sons went to Memphis to help organize a struggle by the city’s sanitation workers to achieve better wages and working conditions. I wondered about M.L.’s involvement in this, whether or not he was spreading his concerns and his energies too thin. But again he was right. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] reside online and […]
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KKK Bombs Alabama Home of Civil Rights Leader Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth | Equal Justice Initiative
On December 25, 1956, Ku Klux Klan members in Alabama bombed the home of civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Shuttlesworth was home at the time of the bombing with his family and two members of Bethel Baptist Church, where he served as pastor. The 16-stick dynamite blast destroyed the home and caused […]
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Richard and Mildred Loving Plead Guilty to Marrying Interracially | Equal Justice Initiative
After marrying in Washington, D.C., in 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving returned to their native Caroline County, Virginia, to build a home and start a family. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Their union was a criminal act in Virginia because Richard was white, Mildred was black, and the state’s Racial Integrity Act, passed in 1924, criminalized interracial marriage. […]
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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
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 […]
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What everyone should know about Reconstruction 150 years after the 15th Amendment’s ratification | The Conversation
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 […]
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MUHAMMAD: Mayor Hatcher Stood First and Stood Tall | The Washington Informer
Gary, Indiana, Mayor Richard Hatcher joined his ancestors on Dec. 13, after a long and distinguished career in public service. He also made a sacrifice and did this reporter a big, big favor some 40 years ago. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Both he and Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes were elected on Nov. 7, 1967. They were the […]
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Exploding Myths About ‘Black Power, Jewish Politics’ | NPR
Many Americans tell the story of Black-Jewish political relations like this: First, there was the Civil Rights movement, where the two groups got along great. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] This was the mid-1950s to the mid-60s — picture Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. marching arm-in-arm from Selma to Montgomery. And James Chaney, […]
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Pardons for the Wilmington 10 | The New York Times
Before leaving office next month, Gov. Bev Perdue of North Carolina should finally pardon the Wilmington 10, a group of civil rights activists who were falsely convicted and imprisoned in connection with a racial disturbance in the city of Wilmington more than 40 years ago. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The convictions, based on flimsy evidence and perjured […]
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The Magnolia House used to be a decades-old passion project for one man. Now, someone else shares that dream — his daughter. | Greensboro.com
GREENSBORO — Natalie Pass Miller loved her life in Atlanta working for the corporate sector. While on a visit back home in 2018, a casual conversation with her dad changed everything. Sam Pass, at one time a fire and safety specialist at Duke University, had spent the past two decades of his off time meticulously […]
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‘The Slaves Dread New Year’s Day the Worst’: The Grim History of January 1 | Time
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 […]
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