This day in history: ‘Disco Demolition Night’ On this day in 1979, nearly 50,000 people packed Comiskey Park on the southwest side of Chicago to watch local DJ and notorious disco hater Steve Dahl blow up a bunch of disco records in between a White Sox doubleheader. “Disco Demolition Night” remains one of the seminal…
Read More Disco Demolition Night“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer – a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.“ Frederick Douglass Every year on this day I make an assessment, from my own perspective, of how much…
Read More 4th of July thoughtsUS gas prices continue to rise, set record prices last week; current national average at $4.59 per gallon, with California prices above $6 per gallon (More) Archaeologists uncover tomb of ancient Egyptian dignitary who handled secret documents for the pharaoh roughly 4,300 years ago (More) Southern Baptist Convention executive leadership meets today following an independent report that found the organization covered up…
Read More Did you know?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 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 #EarthDayBY 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 EraBy 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?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 IncomeBy 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’Soldier 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 LifeBy Paula Ebben February 17, 2022 at 11:20 pm BOSTON (CBS) – It was Newport, September 1953. The centerpiece of the wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and Senator John F. Kennedy was a dress fit for a princess, a classic Ann Lowe. An ivory silk-taffeta gown with a portrait neckline and a full bouffant skirt, it was a…
Read More Ann Lowe, Black Designer Of Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress, Finally Getting Long Overdue RecognitionLucy Higgs Nichols was born into slavery in Tennessee, but during the Civil War, she managed to escape and found her way to the 23rd Indiana Infantry Regiment which was encamped nearby. She stayed with the regiment and worked as a nurse throughout the war.After the war, she moved north with the regiment and settled…
Read More Lucy Higgs NicholsThe Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. They overcame prejudice and segregation to become one of the most respected fighter groups in World War II. One of those brave aviators was United States Air Force General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. While attending the Tuskegee Institute, he helped train…
National Veterans Memorial and Museum" class="entry-more-link">Read More National Veterans Memorial and Museum(the Washington Post catches up to the story) By Lateshia Beachum 1/19/22 After Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones used the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in a speech commemorating the life of the civil rights icon, historians are saying the discomfort she caused is indicative of how muddled the late leader’s stances have become over the…
Read More Nikole Hannah-Jones surreptitiously quoted MLK to show how radical some would find him today