While many know the incredible story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown who escaped slavery by shipping himself from Virginia to Pennsylvania, Lear Green’s story has been somewhat lost to history. Greer was an enslaved woman who made a daring escape in order to marry the man of her choice and bear free children. Green was able to […]
The Red Summer of 1919 refers to a series of race riots that took place in dozens of cities across the United States. On this day that year, Washington, D.C. endured an ugly race riot that left dozens dead and several more injured. As World War I was becoming a memory, many former military men, […]
The shoe repair business has been around a long time, although there’s typically an emphasis on dress shoes and the like. But in Birmingham, Alabama, two friends can lay claim to creating the state’s first Black-owned sneaker dry cleaning service which has expanded quickly since its opening. Tavaris Godbolt and Alvin Miller are the founders […]
As the United States celebrates its Day of Independence today, our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean are also celebrating an important event. The establishment of the Caribbean Community and Common Market, widely known as CARICOM, took place on this day in 1973. Between 1965 and 1972, a trade agreement between several Caribbean nations known […]
Simone Biles became just the second woman in 40 years to win four consecutive national U.S. gymnastics titles, setting the stage for a potential gold medal haul at this year’s Summer Olympics. All eyes will be on Biles as she takes to the world stage in Rio, with some experts saying she could walk away […]
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, addressed the NAACP on this day in 1947. President Truman was the first sitting president to address the organization and is viewed as the nation’s first civil rights president. Truman’s speech to the NAACP was aired publicly on radio and took place at the Lincoln […]
Jack Daniels, the top-selling American whiskey brand in the world, has long said that a white moonshine maker was responsible for creating the popular bourbon. But this summer, the company that a slave might have been the actual mastermind behind the popular brown liquor. The original story is that preacher and moonshine man Dan Call […]
Bernie Worrell, an influential keyboardist who forged his sound while playing with George Clinton’s Parliament and Funkadelic bands, passed last Friday after battling stage four cancer. Mr. Worrell not only played with the legendary funk bands but toured with rock acts and more. Worrell was born April 19, 1944 in Long Branch, New Jersey. A […]
Dr. Adrienne Washington recently became the first Black woman at the University of Pittsburgh to earn a Ph.D. in linguistics. When Dr. Washington read that the University offered studies in the Gullah language, she decided to study it and determine how language is used among Black people all around the world. Washington has had a […]
The matches between American boxer Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis and German Max “Black Uhlan of the Rhine” Schmeling defined the era of early 20th Century boxing. On this day in 1938, Louis defeated Schmeling and became the first Black heavyweight boxer of his rank to score a first-round knockout. Louis and Schmeling previously met […]
