A Brief History of Black Names, From Perlie to Latasha
A scholar disproves the long-held assumption that Black names are a recent phenomenon.
Posts tagged: Black History
Who Was the First Black Child To Go To an Integrated School?
School integration is often thought of as something that took place in the 1960s. But the first Black student to desegregate a school by court order was an Iowa girl named Susan Clark in 1868.
Charles Henry Turner: The little-known Black high school teacher who revolutionized the study of insects
The son of a formerly enslaved mother, Charles Henry Turner was the first to discover that bees and other insects have the ability to modify their behavior based on experience.
Martin Luther King Pushed for Global Justice, Not Just Civil Rights at Home
MLK’s vision for nonviolence included abolishing what he called triple evils – racism, poverty and militarism – and his anger at the Vietnam War led him to push for a broader agenda.
What (and Who) Should Replace Confederate Statues?
The likes of Richard T. Greener should replace memorials to Confederates. He was a groundbreaking Black professor at the University of South Carolina.
From MLK to Sen. Warnock, Ebenezer Baptist Church Has Been a Seat of Black Power for Generations in Atlanta
For Black History Month, a look at a church that has played a vital role in America’s civil rights struggle. It was the spiritual home to MLK, to the generations that shaped the vision of the late civil rights leader, and now to Sen. Raphael Warnock.
John Lewis Biography and Photos
Congressman John Lewis has died at age 80. A towering civil rights figure who survived having his skull fractured by Alabama state police on “Bloody Sunday” in 1965, Lewis had …..
They Killed Malcolm X
Malcolm X was murdered 55 years ago, on February 21, 1965. He had just begun speaking on stage in the Audubon Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in New York when …..
Meet Susan Clark, the First Black Child to Go to a Desegregated School
The first African-American child who won court approval to attend a whites-only school was Susan Clark in Muscatine, Iowa in 1868.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Vision of Love Still Matters
[Editor’s note: The following guest post was originally published by our friends at The Conversation.] By Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State University 2017 was a year of increased conflict in the United …..
Black History Month: Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America’s first black singing superstar
In the 19th century, critics and audiences thought blacks were incapable of singing as well as their white, European counterparts. Greenfield forced them to reconcile their ears with their racism.
Black History Month: Allison Davis, pioneering scholar of racism
His landmark contributions to anthropology have faded from memory, despite real-world policy impact during the mid-20th century. He was the first African-American full-time professor at a predominantly-white university, and his research was cited in Brown v. Board of Education.
Four Views of Blanche Bruce, the Slave Who Became a U.S. Senator
Blanche Bruce, one of America’s first African-American senators, once sat for Mathew Brady’s camera.
Black History Month: W.E.B. Du Bois
Meet prolific writer and editor William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. He had a topsy-turvey relationship with the NAACP, he was tried for being a foreign agent and he died in Africa.
Black History: Odetta
In honor of Black History Month, we’ve added another activist-entertainer to our files: Odetta, the folk singer who came to fame in the 1960s for her powerful voice in protest songs.
Emmett Till Would Be Just 70 Years Old Now
Emmett Till, the black 14-year-old whose murder helped spark the Civil Rights revolution of 1955, was born on this day in Chicago in 1941. He’s been dead for 56 years, yet he’d be just 70 years old today.
Black History Month Biography: Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington and guests, about 1906. Washington is front row, center, with the watch chain. Booker T. Washington is our first featured biography for Black History Month 2011.