By Faith Karimi On February 25, 1964, four African American icons met in a Miami hotel room for a night of revelry, bonding, arguments and ice cream. One of them, the brash and flamboyant Cassius Clay (soon to change his name to
By Shannon Dawson Kwanzaa, an annual celebration of African culture spanning from Dec. 26 to Jan.1, originated in 1966 amid the Black Freedom Movement. The celebration was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, an activist and esteemed professor of Africana studies at California State University, Long Beach. Rooted in the early harvest festivities of Africa, this holidayholds
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By Joseph H. Silver, Sr. The country that was once guided by the words on the Statue of Liberty is hardly recognizable today. Politics aside, there is no real excuse for the level of meanspiritedness being exhibited across this country. We have drifted into a space and time where “truth” means absolutely nothing. Lies can
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By Emily Olson Six decades ago, an estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in the nation’s capital. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech that day, on August 28, 1963, has since emerged as a paramount symbol of the push for racial
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Courtesy of the National Museum of African American History & Culture While Juneteenth is often associated with celebrations of physical emancipations from slavery, it also signaled another type of liberation for the newly freed. Between 1861 and 1900, more than 90 institutions of higher education were founded for Black Americans who could not otherwise attend predominantly white institutions
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By Claretta Bellamy Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs will make history Sunday when two Black quarterbacks face each other in a Super Bowl for the first time. If Hurts leads his team to victory, he will be the fourth Black quarterback to do so, following Washington’s Doug Williams
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By Terry Gross Journalist Mark Whitaker says that much of what’s happening in American race relations today traces back to 1966, the year when the Black Panthers were founded and the Black Power movement took full form. It’s also the year when when Stokely Carmichael replaced John Lewis as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and challenged the tactic of non-violence. Whitaker
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By Claretta Bellamy New Jersey is honoring its Black history and culture with a new trail that will mark important sites throughout the Garden State. Gov. Phil Murphy signed Bill A2677 into law Wednesday, which gives the New Jersey Historical Commission $1 million to develop the Black Heritage Trail, a path highlighting Black historical markers and sites
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By Bryan Mcclure Ask any knowledgeable person the most famous graduate to come from a Historically Black College and nine out of ten times the first person they will say is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a 1948 graduate of Morehouse. The long standing tradition of Morehouse, along with the fact that Blacks had very
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Black Poetry Day is celebrated every year on October 17 to honor all the talented African American poets, both past and present. If you’re a literature enthusiast, poet, or writer — no matter your race — you’ll absolutely love Black Poetry Day where you can celebrate black heritage and history. Black Poetry Day is celebrated
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“Racism is part of our inheritance as Americans. Every city, every state and every region of this country has its own deep history with racism. And so does the labor movement.” –Richard Trumka, Missouri AFL-CIO Convention America’s Declaration of Independence asserts that “all men are created equal” and “that they are endowed by their Creator
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