History
-
To Mark the 55th Anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday,' the Film Selma Is Being Used to Teach a New Generation About Protecting the Right to Vote
When it comes to spurring Oklahoma to grapple with a century-old race massacre that schoolbooks had left behind, much of the credit is due to an unlikely historical resource: HBO. For 99 years, Oklahoma had failed to reckon with the 1921 Tulsa massacre in which white residents torched and carpet bombed the city’s black community,…
-
Black History Month Is for White People
I don’t know a lot about white history. I also don’t know much about green bean casserole, Creedence Clearwater Revival or shampoo-and-conditioner-in-one. I am, however, familiar with seasoned salt, the nuances of Blue Magic vs. Dax vs. Pink Oil Lotion, and the musical stylings of Frankie Beverly and Maze. And, unlike many of my educated…
-
Google Kicks Off Black History Month With Greensboro, N.C., Sit-In Doodle by Compton Artist Karen Collins
As today officially marks the first day of what is regarded as Black History Month, tech giant Google is commemorating the occasion with a special Google Doodle honoring the 60th anniversary of the Greensboro, N.C., sit-in. That doodle is of Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair, Jr.), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond, better known…
-
MLK, the KKK and the NRA: A Brief History of Racists With Guns
A white supremacist with a gun killed Martin Luther King Jr. That fact alone makes Monday’s white supremacist-palooza seem particularly disrespectful. However, the history of the Second Amendment reflects America’s obsession with firearms as a means of oppression. Guns have been the primary tool for racial oppression since America was founded, so MLK Day might…
-
#NotAllHistorians: Some White People Are Upset That the New York Times' 1619 Project Isn’t Centered in Whiteness
“For 400 years, we have been told that black people are a problem. We are indoctrinated into this lie from the moment we take our first breath. No people have been more legislated against and studied than black Americans. That is because our very existence in our country gives lie to the exceptionality mythology of…
-
Nearly 100 Years Later, Tulsa Begins Search for Mass Graves From 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre
A few blocks away from Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood sits the city’s oldest existing cemetery, Oaklawn. On Monday, scientists and forensic anthropologists scoured the cemetery with ground-penetrating radar, looking for signs of a mass grave that could hold the remains of hundreds of black residents killed during the 1921 Tulsa massacre. As the 100-year anniversary of…
-
Hollywood Once Told Francis Ford Coppola The Cotton Club Had 'Too Many Black Stories'. Now, He's Restoring Them
You know how kids have a list of things they want to be when they grow up and toggle between them until they actually do grow up and (maybe) decide on one thing? Well, for me, one of those things was a tap dancer. Now, this urge was completely inside of my head, as I…
-
Exclusive: Martin Luther King Jr. Talks Reparations, White Economic Anxiety and Guaranteed Income in Previously Unheard Speech
A newly uncovered speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in 1967 sounds curiously like the civil rights icon is speaking about current-day conditions as he preaches about underfunded schools, the wage gap, white backlash against black progress and the country’s need to address poverty. On July 30, 1967, less than a year before…
-
Breaking: Something Bad Is Happening in Virginia [Updated]
To commemorate the quadricentennial anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in America, we imagined what it would be like to cover that late August day when the first slave ship landed on the shores of the place now known as Hampton, Va. 8/20/1619 2:27 P.M. Earlier: A few hours ago, The Root received several…