Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to
By Krishna Mann In the US, the stories of a select few Black women — Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells, to name a few — seem to circulate on a regular rotation in school classrooms, inspirational calendars and social media memes. While these women’s contributions to history are incredibly important, there are countless other Black
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By Ian Abbey, Ph.D. I spent a year teaching mostly dual-credit and early college United States history classes in a rural district in northeastern Texas. It was a good year; my supervisors and colleagues, along with the vast majority of my students, were wonderful to work with. When we covered the Civil Rights Movement, I
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By Marie Schulte- Bockum Since the first Olympic Games debuted in Athens, Greece in 1896, the gathering of the world’s dominant athletes has become a global event. But with historic discrimination and fewer opportunities for elite training, Black athletes faced immense challenges to compete. Nonetheless, starting in the early 20th century, African American athletes began competing in the
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Courtesy of Prairie View A&M University February in the United States has been known since 1976 as Black History Month. This month-long annual celebration of the descendants of enslaved Africans has been exalted as a necessary spotlight on the experiences and contributions of Black Americans to the United States. It has also been lambasted as
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By Janice Sage Each year on the third Monday of January we observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and reflect on the work that still needs to be done for racial equality. This January 17, make the holiday more than just a day off and take time to reflect and take action on civil rights
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By Eliott C. McLaughlin, It was 230 years ago Sunday that Robert Carter III, the patriarch of one of the wealthiest families in Virginia, quietly walked into a Northumberland County courthouse and delivered an airtight legal document announcing his intention to free, or manumit, more than 500 slaves. He titled it the “deed of gift.” It was,
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By Scottie Andrew The “Harlem Hellfighters” helped the US win World War I. The Black infantry unit was one of the most decorated regiments at the time, even as most of its members were met with racism and disregard upon their return home. Now, more than 100 years after the regiment’s surviving members came home
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By Neelam Bohra and Radhika Marya Members of the Women’s Army Corps’ all-Black 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion had to fight racial discrimination, gender discrimination and the war itself during World War II. After traveling overseas in 1945, the unit, nicknamed “Six Triple Eight,” survived encounters with Nazi U-boats and a German rocket explosion before
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By Harmeet Kaur For much of US history, Juneteenth has been a date observed mostly by Black Americans commemorating the symbolic end of slavery. Since the reckoning reignited by the killing of George Floyd last year, though, the tide has changed enormously. All but one state, as well as the District of Columbia, recognize the milestone of
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By Toby Lyles Juneteenth is the oldest known US celebration of the end of slavery. African-Americans and others mark the anniversary much like the Fourth of July, with parties, picnics and gatherings with family and friends. Here’s a look at Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Jubilee Day, by the numbers: 155 –
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