The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) [on Aug. 19] announced “The Reunion,” its 10th-anniversary commemoration, featuring a series of multi-day celebrations and signature events for visitors of all ages taking place Sept. 24–27. Guided by the theme
Written By Lexx Nunn In 1926, Woodson a historian and founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) established Negro History Week to promote the achievements of Black Americans. Proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, he chose to celebrate the second week of February to coincide with the
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Written By The Associated Press The first Black woman to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps after the military was desegregated in the 1940s has died. She was 104. Nancy Leftenant-Colon, who retired as a major and died earlier this month at a New York nursing home, was remembered by relatives and friends for quietly
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By Cedric Mobley The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (LL.D. ’57) visited and spoke at Howard several times, but it could not have been more fitting that Dr. Martin Luther King’s last speech at Howard was to deliver the Gandhi Memorial Lecture on November 9, 1966, just a few weeks before the university’s 100th
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By Matthew Allen It’s been 39 years since the first holiday marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A whole generation has now come of age since the yearslong push to honor the Civil Rights icon came to fruition. Although Dr. King’s legacy has endured since the 1950s, his nuanced rhetoric that took
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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He chose that location in part to honor President Abraham Lincoln as “a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today.” Now, millions of people honor King in the same way.
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The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has recently acquired a collection of materials on Ethel Waters, a pioneering twentieth-century Black singer and actress. Born in 1896 as a result of the rape of her teenage Black mother Louise Anderson, Waters was raised in poverty by her grandmother in Philadelphia. Speaking
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Courtesy of North Carolina A&T State University The National Park Service has designated the F.W. Woolworth Co. Building, where the four teenage HBCU freshmen from the North Carolina A&T State University staged a sit-in that buoyed the Civil Rights Movement, a National Historic Landmark. On Feb. 1, 1960, Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair Jr.), Joseph McNeil,
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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
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By Ronda Racha Penrice The job was considered impossible: Clear 17 million pieces of backlogged mail. In a war zone. Maj. Charity Adams knew it was a mission that could not fail, not just for the sake of morale of World War II troops, but also for the reputation of Black people in the eyes of the country’s
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By Cedric Mobley For decades, Black Americans fought in the U.S. military to bring liberty to people around the world, even though those rights were often denied to them at home. Nevertheless, these heroes have sacrificed their safety and devoted their lives to protecting the promise of America— that the country will one day truly facilitate “liberty
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