African American

By Michael Duffy Washington Post Opinions editor-at-large We are witnessing something of a watershed moment in the reckoning America is having with itself and its history. Harvard University released a 134-page report Tuesday that begins to explain how, as Post columnist Eugene Robinson put it, “the nation’s oldest, richest and most prestigious institution of higher learning” benefited from slavery.  Two Harvard…

Read More A hard historical truth about Harvard

While they have varying backgrounds and experiences, a majority of Black Americans (76%) say being Black is extremely or very important to how they think about themselves. A significant share says that when something happens to Black people in their local communities, across the nation or around the globe, it affects what happens in their own lives.…

Read More Race is central to identity for Black Americans and affects how they connect with each other

By Serena Williams I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia. Yet I consider myself fortunate. While I had a pretty easy pregnancy, my daughter was born by emergency C-section after her heart rate dropped dramatically during contractions. The surgery went smoothly. Before I knew it, Olympia was in my arms. It was the…

Read More Serena Williams: What my life-threatening experience taught me about giving birth

By Gillian Brockell “We captured three Negro soldiers, the first we had seen,” Private Byrd Willis wrote on May 8, 1864. “They were taken out on the road side and shot and their bodies left there.” Coming across these lines a century and a half later was “a chilling experience,” Lambert said in a phone interview.…

Read More Three Black soldiers executed by Confederates are finally being honored in Virginia

Loretta Mary Aiken (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), known by her stage name Jackie “Moms” Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin’ Circuit of African-American vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared in films and on television programs including The…

Read More What Do You Know About “Moms” Mabley?

By Shawn Donnan, Ann Choi, Hannah Levitt, and Christopher Cannon March 11, 2022 Nationwide, only 47% of Black homeowners who completed a refinance application with Wells Fargo in 2020 were approved, compared with 72% of White homeowners, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of federal mortgage data. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets,…

Read More Black Mortgage Applicants with Almost Highest Income Approved at Same Rate as White Applicants with Lowest Income

HARRIET TUBMAN KEPT PUSHING FOR CHANGE AFTER THE ‘RAILROAD’

By Starlight Williams, Associate Editor Thursday, March 10, 2022 In her nine decades (she died on this day in 1913), Tubman (pictured in 1878) became the first U.S. woman to lead an armed military raid and was a spy and nurse for the Union during the Civil War. She joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their…

HARRIET TUBMAN KEPT PUSHING FOR CHANGE AFTER THE ‘RAILROAD’" class="entry-more-link">Read More HARRIET TUBMAN KEPT PUSHING FOR CHANGE AFTER THE ‘RAILROAD’