Black History Month - Page 5

Black History Month: Fritz Pollard

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By Amir Vera The son of a boxer, Fritz Pollard (1894-1986) had grit in his veins. At 5 feet, 9 inches and 165 pounds, he was small for football. But that didn’t stop him from bulldozing barriers on and off the field. Pollard attended Brown University, where he majored in chemistry and played halfback on the football team. He was the school’s first Black player and led Brown to the 1916 Rose Bowl, although porters refused to serve him on the team’s train trip to California. After serving in the Army during World War I, he joined the Akron Pros

Congress is again discussing reparations for slavery.

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN Slavery reparations are back in the national spotlight. A House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing this week to discuss establishing a federal commission that would explore how the US government might compensate the descendants of enslaved Americans. And though the White House press secretary declined to say whether President Joe Biden would sign legislation to develop reparations for slavery, she did say he supported a study on the matter. Lawmakers have been advocating for a federal effort to study slavery reparations for more than 30 years now — to no avail. But since the widespread protests

Black History Month: Gil Scott-Heron

By Harmeet Kaur Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) was a New York City poet, activist, musician, social critic and spoken-word performer whose songs in the ‘70s helped lay the foundation for rap music. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably come across one of his poetic turns of phrase. Some have called Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” though he was always reluctant to embrace that title. Still, the imprint he left on the genre – and music, more broadly – is unmistakable. His work has been sampled, referenced or reinterpreted by Common, Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Jamie xx, LCD Soundsystem

The Black church is having a moment

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By John Blake, CNN The Rev. Jemar Tisby describes himself as a “theological mutt.” He was baptized in a Southern Baptist church, joined a White nondenominational congregation and spent much of his time attending Catholic schools. But once he attended a small Black Baptist church in the Mississippi Delta, he found a home. Located in a former warehouse, the church had concrete floors, metal folding chairs for pews and an elderly congregation of only about 12 people. What they lacked in size, though, they made up for in spiritual fervor. When members of the congregation began to “feel the spirit,”

The late Marsha P. Johnson is celebrated today as a veteran of the Stonewall Inn protests

By Harmeet Kaur The late Marsha P. Johnson is celebrated today as a veteran of the Stonewall Inn protests, a pioneering transgender activist and a pivotal figure in the gay liberation movement. Monuments to her life are planned in New York City and her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey. During her lifetime (1945-1992), though, she wasn’t always treated with the same dignity. When police raided the New York gay bar known as the Stonewall Inn in 1969, Johnson was said to be among the first to resist them. The next year, she marched in the city’s first Gay Pride demonstration.

White violence and Black protests during the 1918 flu have a lesson for today

By Kristen Rogers, CNN Adella Bond fired her revolver outside her window into the South Philadelphia air, hoping to attract police as a mob of Irish American people gathered around her home to tell her she wasn’t welcome. Bond, a Black woman who was a municipal court probation officer, knew that racial conflicts unfolded in neighborhoods that had once belonged to only White people but were beginning to house Black people as they migrated from the South to the North during the Great Migration, said Kenneth Finkel, a professor in the department of history at Temple University in Philadelphia, and

Black History Month: Frederick McKinley Jones

By Faith Karimi, CNN Frederick McKinley Jones was orphaned by age 8 and raised by a Catholic priest before he dropped out of high school. That didn’t stop him from pursuing his calling as an inventor whose work changed the world. A curious youth with a passion for tinkering with machines and mechanical devices, he worked as an auto mechanic and taught himself electronics. After serving in World War I, he returned to his Minnesota town and built a transmitter for its new radio station. This caught the attention of a businessman, Joseph Numero, who offered Jones a job developing

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: BESSIE COLEMAN

By Leah Asmelash, CNN Born to sharecroppers in a small Texas town, Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman became interested in flying while living in Chicago, where stories about the exploits of World War I pilots piqued her interest. But flight schools in the US wouldn’t let her in because of her race and gender. Undeterred, Coleman learned French, moved to Paris and enrolled in a prestigious aviation school, where in 1921 she became the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license. Back in the US, Coleman began performing on the barnstorming circuit, earning cheers for her daring loops, acrobatic figure-eights and

Black History Month: Max Robinson

By Amir Vera A trailblazer in broadcasting and journalism, Max Robinson in 1978 became the first Black person to anchor the nightly network news. But his road to the anchor’s chair wasn’t easy. Robinson got his start in 1959 when he was hired to read the news at a station in Portsmouth, Virginia. His face was hidden behind a graphic that read, “NEWS.” One day he told the cameraman to remove the slide. “I thought it would be good for all my folks and friends to see me rather than this dumb news sign up there,” Robinson once told an

Daily game of dress-up teaches 5-year-old about Black history

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By Sydney N. Walton, CNN One Michigan mother is using a daily game of dress-up to teach her daughter about some of the most influential Black figures. For the third year in a row, Taylor Trotter is dressing her daughter Paisley as some of the most influential Black trailblazers. Every day she takes a picture of Paisley dressed as a different historical figure, posts a side-by-side picture on Facebook, and adds a caption explaining each person’s contribution to American history. February is Black History Month. Five-year-old Paisley has dressed up as Serena Williams, Kamala Harris, Jackie Robinson, Mae Jemison and

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