Black History News
Confederate Statues Being Toppled in Richmond
Special from the Richmond Free Press (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Goodbye, “Stonewall” Jackson. So long, J.E.B. Stuart, Matthew Fontaine Maury and maybe A.P. Hill. The removal of city-owned statues of those Confederates and other champions of slavery and White supremacy has begun with the bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Jackson hauled from the perch it has occupied…
Read MoreSC African American History Calendar June 2020 Honoree: Reverend James S. Hall Jr.
Reverend James S. Hall Jr. was born in 1932, in Marion, S.C. to Reverend James S. Hall Sr. and Mrs. Eliza Hall. Hall attended primary school in Marion and then earned a B.S. in Education and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Morris College in Sumter, S.C. He received honorary degrees from Morris College, Fuller…
Read MoreStatues Honoring Racist Past Are Coming Down From The U.S. To Europe
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Congo’s independence from Belgium, the Congolese diaspora is looking for the removal of racist statues but not only that. “Many think that our political conscience has just sparked now, but we have been here for decades,” says Mireille-Thseusi Robert, president of the feminist and anti-racism committee, Bamko-Cran.…
Read MoreRachel Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton & Carter Launch the Month-Long “Tip Your Cap” Campaign to Honor the 100th Anniversary of Baseball’s Negro Leagues
Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, in collaboration with civil rights hero Rachel Robinson and baseball legend Hank Aaron, are joined by scores of baseball players and other professional athletes, sports executives, entertainers, journalists and others for an unprecedented tribute to the 100-year anniversary of the founding of baseball’s Negro Leagues. The Tip Your Cap campaign, which is being directed…
Read MoreIconic Charleston English Teacher N.C. Williams Passes
By Barney Blakeney A pillar of the Charleston community passed away June 27. Ms. Naomi C. Williams, or “N.C’’ as she was affectionately called by her peers at C.A. Brown High School and the community at large, was a renowned educator in the Charleston County Public School system for over 35 years. She was 94…
Read MoreUgandans Launch Drive To ‘Decolonize’ Local Area Streets
A petition to rename roads honoring British colonial figures has gathered thousands of names. The move comes as similar actions against dubious historical figures are taking place in the U.S. and South Africa. Speke Road, for example, is named after the British explorer John Hanning Speke, the first European to reach Nyanza, one of the…
Read MoreFilm review: John Lewis – Good Trouble
“I feel lucky and blessed that I’m serving in the Congress… But there is a force that is trying to take us back to another time and another dark period,” warns congressman John Lewis. And he’d know. Since age 17, this brave crusader has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Now at…
Read MoreGoogle Doodle Celebrates LGBTQ+ Rights Activist Marsha P. Johnson
On June 30th, 2020, in light of Pride Month in the U.S., Google launched a Doodle, illustrated by Los Angeles-based guest artist Rob Gilliam, celebrating LGBTQ+ rights activist, performer, and self-identified drag queen Marsha P. Johnson, who is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the United States. On this day in 2019, Marsha…
Read MoreSecretary Bernhardt Designates John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park as African American Civil Rights Network Site
U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt has designated the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park as an official member of the African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN), formally recognizing the historical and national significance of the tragic Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and Dr. John Hope Franklin’s work to advance the African American civil rights movement. The African…
Read MoreNASA Names Headquarters After ‘Hidden Figure’ Mary W. Jackson
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced June 23 the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA. Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs…
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