The Israeli-Palestinian issue goes back nearly a century when Britain, during World War I, pledged to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine under the Balfour Declaration. British troops took control of the territory from the Ottoman Empire at the end of October 1917. Large-scale Jewish migration to Palestine began, accelerated by Jewish…
Read More Israeli-Palestinian ConflictBy 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 HarvardGood Black News celebrates Hazel M. Johnson, the community activist who sought to clean up the “Toxic Doughnut” that encircled her community on the South Side of Chicago, and in the process became known as the “Mother of Environmental Justice.” Read more HERE.
Read More Remembering Activist Hazel M. Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Justice,” on #EarthDay04/25/2022 09:42 AM EDT from The Library of CongressThe court photographer for the Ziegfeld Follies, Alfred Cheney Johnston — who later donated more than 200 of his photographs to the Library — captured the era and helped create the modern celebrity glamour shot. He was one of the first celebrity photographers.
The Gorgeous Jazz Age Photography of Alfred Cheney Johnston" class="entry-more-link">Read More The Gorgeous Jazz Age Photography of Alfred Cheney JohnstonBY GOODBLACKNEWS ON DECEMBER 27, 2017 by Niraj Chokshi via nytimes.com Don Hogan Charles, who was the first black photographer to be hired by The New York Times, and who drew acclaim for his evocative shots of the civil rights movement and everyday life in New York, died on Dec. 15, 2017 in East Harlem. He was 79. In…
Read More Don Hogan Charles, 79, Lauded Photographer of Civil Rights Era‘A Song for Cesar’ History will remember the blood, sweat and tears shed by late civil-rights activist and labor leader Cesar Chavez while standing up for American farmworkers. In ‘Song for Cesar,’ co-writers and co-directors Andres Alegria and Abel Sanchez build on that legacy and pride through the music of Chavez’s era. Friday, April 29, 8 p.m.…
Read More AARP has Movies for GrownupsBy 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 VirginiaLoretta 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?In the latest issue of Orion magazine, Lacy M. Johnson writes: When the next freeze or fire or pandemic or hurricane hits us, vulnerability will determine who gets to live, and who will die, and how. The disaster won’t be the weather, but the shape of the wound structural violence has already made. For better or worse, St. Patrick’s…
Read More Lessons from Irish HistoryA major new online research guide highlights hundreds of sources that tell the stories of women through a wide variety of perspectives and media in the Library of Congress collections. The guide’s comprehensive coverage includes historic and contemporary audio and video files, posters, photographs, magazines, sheet music, maps, manuscripts, and rare books, as well as…
American Women: A guide to Women’s History Resources at the Library of Congress" class="entry-more-link">Read More American Women: A guide to Women’s History Resources at the Library of CongressMarch 3, 2022 By David Leonhardt The original American advocate for inoculation against severe disease was arguably an enslaved man named Onesimus. Before being forcibly brought to Boston, Onesimus seems to have lived in West Africa, where inoculation was a common practice. There, he had been deliberately infected with a small amount of smallpox to…
Read More Inoculations in American History“I need ammunition, not a ride” — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refusing the US’s offer to get him out of Kyiv. This is the largest attack in Europe since World War II. But by invading a sovereign country in a move reminiscent of the 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia, Putin has united most of the world against him. And…
Read More Putin’s attack on Ukraine echoes Hitler’s takeover of CzechoslovakiaWed, February 23, 2022, 11:00 AM For every $1 the average white man in America earns, the average Black woman earns near $.69, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In honor of Black History Month, we took a look at some of the richest self-made Black women in the world, who are changing the finance…
Honoring Black History Month: Oprah, Rihanna, Serena Williams, and more, are among some of the richest, self-made Black women in the world" class="entry-more-link">Read More Honoring Black History Month: Oprah, Rihanna, Serena Williams, and more, are among some of the richest, self-made Black women in the worldSoldier For Life Cathay Williams was the first documented black woman to enlist in the U.S. Army. Williams was born a slave in Missouri in 1844. She served as an Army cook during the Civil War, traveling with infantry units as they moved from state to state. In November 1866, Williams enlisted in the Army…
Read More Cathay Williams, Soldier for Life