Black history

13 Stories

Teacher's Video on Target Item Goes Viral: 'Need to Be Pulled'

Issa Tete says pictures of 3 civil rights icons were mislabeled in Black History Month activity book

(Newser) - It wouldn't be Black History Month without cringeworthy gaffes regarding Black History Month. The latest misstep comes courtesy of an item sold in Target, which has now been pulled off shelves after a customer complaint went viral. NPR reports that Issa Tete, a high school history teacher, decided to...

College Board Speaks Out on Florida Slavery Lesson

Slavery was in no way 'a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans'

(Newser) - The College Board has spoken out against Florida's new African American history standards , which have been strongly criticized for suggesting some Black people benefited from being enslaved. "We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans,...

AP Black History Course Loses BLM Content

College Board CEO says finalized version wasn't a response to political pressure

(Newser) - A Jan. 12 letter from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board didn't specify which sections it found objectionable in the draft version of new Advanced Placement course on African American studies it was blocking from state high schools—but it's possible those parts have now...

Students Threaten to Sue After DeSantis Blocks AP Course

3 honors high schoolers want African-American studies class taught in Florida

(Newser) - Earlier this month, Ron DeSantis' administration blocked an Advanced Placement African-American studies class from being taught in high schools around Florida, claiming the course managed by the College Board is "historically inaccurate" and "contrary" to state law. Now, a group of honors students is threatening to sue the...

Attorneys, NAACP Seek Clemency for WWI Soldiers

Advocates want Biden to pardon Black soldiers convicted without due process in 1917

(Newser) - A group of attorneys and advocates have pledged to seek clemency for 110 Black soldiers who were convicted in a mutiny and riots at a military camp in Houston in 1917. The South Texas College of Law Houston and the NAACP’s local branch have signed an agreement to continue...

NASA HQ Now Bears the Name of a 'Hidden Figure'

Mary Jackson was the agency's first black female engineer

(Newser) - NASA's Washington, DC, headquarters now bears the name of the agency's first black female engineer. The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building appropriately sits on a street renamed Hidden Figures Way in 2019. Jackson—portrayed by Janelle Monáe in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, based on the...

Developers Dig Up 19th-Century Body —Which Changes Everything

The New York City parcel was once a black burial ground

(Newser) - A plot of land in New York City is rich in black history. It's also worth millions of dollars. And that combination has developers trying to satisfy a church that has final say over the former African American burial ground, the New York Times reports. "It has been...

Museum 'Must-See' Dedicated to Black History, Culture

'NYT' review of Smithsonian's long-awaited museum, set to open next Saturday

(Newser) - A week from Saturday, a 130-year-old bell from a church erected by slaves will ring to herald the grand opening of a 400,000-square-foot DC museum that's been talked about since 1915, NPR reports. The idea for that museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and...

Mother Kidnaps Daughter to Avoid Vaccinating Her

Megan Elizabeth Everett wrote she didn't want her daughter 'brainwashed'

(Newser) - A Florida woman vanished with her 2-year-old daughter Lilly early last month, in an alleged kidnapping case said to revolve around vaccines, schooling ... and the Confederacy. In a note to Lilly's father documented in court records, Megan Elizabeth Everett, 22, reportedly explained that she didn't want their child...

New Database Tracks Slave Graveyards Across US

Fordham researcher starts project to mark sites online

(Newser) - Fordham has launched a first-of-its kind national database designed to catalog places in the US where slaves are buried. The Burial Database Project of Enslaved African Americans is the brainchild of Fordham's Sandra Arnold, whose ancestors were slaves, reports the New York Times . The site relies on visitors to...

Don't Forget: Women Made 'Red Tails' Possible
Don't Forget: Women Made 'Red Tails' Possible 
Skip Gates
Jan 27, 2012 12:34 PM CST

Don't Forget: Women Made 'Red Tails' Possible

Skip Gates on how activist, pilot, first lady made Tuskegee Airmen possible

(Newser) - George Lucas' Red Tails is a "very important film," reminding us of the "often overlooked role of African Americans in World War II," Henry Louis "Skip" Gates writes in the Root . But what you sadly won't see in the movie are the three women...

20-Year-Old Barack Obama "Black History" Video Goes Viral

 20-Year-Old Obama 
 Video Goes 
 Viral 
in case you missed it
Nov 26, 2011 7:18 AM CST

20-Year-Old Obama Video Goes Viral

Then-Harvard Law student hosted 'Black History Minute' on TBS

(Newser) - Want to revisit the Barack Obama you once knew and loved... oh, 20 years ago? Yes, it's a ways back, but it's still fascinating to see the 29-year-old Harvard Law Review editor giving a short spiel on TBS. He had longer hair and, you guessed it, not a...

Derby's Forgotten Legacy: Black Jockeys

They once ruled the sport, until Jim Crow came along

(Newser) - When the Kentucky Derby gets under way today, not one black jockey will be in the race. Which isn't exactly news. But consider this: For the first Derby, in 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were black. In fact, black jockeys—the first were slaves—thoroughly dominated the sport through...

13 Stories
Most Read on Newser