Novelist, folklorist, dramatist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston wrote in her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, that she was born on January 7, 1891, in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black town in the United States. Listen to Hurston describe and perform songs found in the Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections: “Georgia Skin,” Zora Neale Hurston, June 18,…
Read More Zora Neale HurstonBy Alynda Wheat (@AlyndaWheat) Updated January 07, 2022 10:57 AM Poitier died Thursday evening. With a staggering list of accolades, including an Academy Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a knighthood, Poitier leaves behind an indelible legacy that extends far beyond his commanding screen presence.
Read More Sidney Poitier, First Black Man to Win Best Actor Oscar and a Titan of Cinema, Dead at 94Famed contralto Marian Anderson made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955, as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. She was the first African American to perform with the company.
Read More Marian AndersonAfter the tumult and triumphs of 2020, here are the achievements that shaped the first year following the country’s racial reckoning. By Dodai Stewart Kamala Harris became the first Black woman — and the first woman of color — sworn into the office of Vice President of the United States. Amanda Gorman, a Black writer and,…
Read More What Made Black History in 2021?By DAN GOLDBERG 05/25/2020 Commander Daniel W. Armstrong, a tall, handsome, aristocratic-looking man with an upright gait and an immaculate uniform, looked the 16 black men over. He was the white officer in charge of the black camp, a man whose willingness to work with African American enlistees earned praise from the higher-ups in Washington. “Do you…
Read More The Golden Thirteen: The Forgotten Story of How 13 Black Men Broke the Navy’s Toughest Color BarrierBy Precious Fondren For most of her life, Debra Willett had a vague idea about who her grandfather was. She knew he had fought in France in World War I at some point. But she didn’t grasp the importance of what her grandfather, who died in 1956, had accomplished until she began doing some genealogy research…
Read More Honoring the Forgotten Harlem Hellfighters: An Exceptional Unit of Black SoldiersMilitary.com | By Bethanne Kelly Patrick The opportunity for African-Americans to enlist and serve in the Marine Corps came in 1942 as the Corps began to recruit qualified African-American men. The men who enlisted in response completed recruit training at Montford Point, North Carolina during a time and place where racism and segregation were a part of everyday…
Read More The Montford Point MarinesBy Clay Risen Published Aug. 22, 2021 Updated Sept. 1, 2021 Lucille Times, whose encounter with a bus driver in Montgomery, Ala., in June 1955 led her to begin a one-woman boycott of the city’s public transportation, an act of defiance that inspired a mass boycott six months later after another Black woman, Rosa Parks, was charged with defying…
Read More Lucille Times, Who Inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dies at 100On October 16, 1833, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett was born near Litchfield, Connecticut to free black parents who held prominent roles in Connecticut’s free black community. Bassett’s father was a businessman who had served as one of Connecticut’s Black Governors — an honorary leadership role in the state’s black community — and his grandfather was…
Read More The United States’ First African-American DiplomatFire Shut Up in My Bones is in the running for best American opera of the 21st century. By James Jorden • 09/28/21 12:13pm After over a year and a half of silence, the Metropolitan Opera came roaring back last night with a captivating new opera to open its 2021-2022 season. Terence Blanchard’s tuneful Fire Shut Up in My…
Read More Premiere of ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Sets the Reopened Met Ablaze