As part of the Republican Party’s new effort to woo black voters, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul went to Howard University yesterday and presented a questionable version of history to explain why black people should be flocking to the Republican Party. Paul seemed to expect that the crowd at the historically black university wouldn’t be aware [...]
ABS Honors Malcolm X For His Economic Outlook
February 12, 2013 | Posted by
This week, ABS honors the leaders who took a strong stand to improve the economic conditions of black people. Malcolm X is often remembered by his admirers as a political freedom fighter and as the man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. However, he is not appropriately [...]
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Women Legends Honored by Union
January 20, 2013 | Posted by
Filling the hall with her deep, warm and triumphant voice, Freedom Singer Rutha Harris led a conference room full of union members in song during a panel featuring the testimonies of women who were part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the critical forces of the Civil Rights movement that confronted racial [...]
Rare Photo of Noted Black Female Sculptor of 19th Century Found
January 17, 2013 | Posted by
A stroll through a Baltimore antique shop has turned up an unsuspected treasure — a rare photograph of Mary Edmonia Lewis, the first 19th century African-American sculptor to receive international recognition. The Walters Art Museum, which announced the discovery on Wednesday, said this was only the eighth known photograph of Lewis. The image was shot [...]
Martin Luther King Was an Angry Black Man
January 17, 2013 | Posted by
We have entered the time again when the nation ponders the life and words of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is King’s birthday month, and I wonder, which version of the man will dominate our thinking? Will we bite into the tough ideas posed by the hardcore warrior, who was among America’s greatest critics? [...]
Tavis Smiley’s ‘America I AM’: The 500-year Backstory to Barack Obama
July 2, 2012 | Posted by
With “America I Am: The African American Imprint” making its home in Charlotte, N.C., while 35,000 visitors descend on the city for the Democratic National Convention in September, Tavis Smiley is sending a message. “It’s important for Americans to understand that there is a 400- to 500-year backstory to Barack Obama,” the radio and TV [...]
Martin R. Delany, Father of Black Nationalism, To Be Honored
May 2, 2012 | Posted by
Martin R. Delany (1812–1885) has been called the “Father of Black Nationalism,” but his extraordinary career also encompassed the roles of abolitionist, physician, editor, explorer, politician, army officer, novelist and political theorist. Despite his enormous influence in the 19th century and his continuing influence on Black nationalist thought in the 20th century, Delany has remained [...]
