HOUSTON — A Houston museum dedicated to conserving African American culture said Tuesday that its decision to display a more than 100-year-old Confederate statue is about providing Black Americans with a way to confront slavery’s painful legacy and include their lived experiences in the conversation. The towering bronze statue, called...
Website Aims to Highlight Hidden Figures in Black History
HANOVER, N.H. — A few years back, Matthew Delmont felt his teaching about African American history had gotten a little stale so he starting casting around for a fresh way to bring it to life. The Dartmouth College professor initially turned to Twitter for a year to share stories about...
'Black in Space' Looks at Final Frontier of Civil Rights
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In 1959, Ronald Erwin McNair walked into a South Carolina library. The 9-year-old aspiring astronaut wanted to check out a calculus book, but a librarian threatened to call the police if he didn't leave. McNair was black. Years later, McNair was selected to become only the second...
'Othered' in America: An Old Story, Still Playing out Daily
CHICAGO — Activist Hoda Katebi rarely takes a break from organizing. As tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in recent weeks, she became even busier. On a recent Sunday afternoon, the 25-year-old Iranian American sat in her Chicago apartment shifting between monitoring her Twitter feed, taking phone calls and...
Class Assignment Creates Uproar in FTA, Black Community
A classroom assignment connected with a novel by acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston has embroiled Fresno Unified School District in another race-related controversy. This time the district is in the crosshairs of both the teachers union and members of the black community. Black activists say the assignment, given by a...
Black Americans Mostly Left Behind by Progress Since Dr. King's Death
On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while assisting striking sanitation workers. Back then, a half century ago, the wholesale racial integration required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act was just beginning to chip away at discrimination in education, jobs and public facilities....
Questions of Racism Linger as Harry, Meghan Step Back
LONDON — When accomplished, glamorous American actress Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in 2018, she was hailed as a breath of fresh air for Britain’s fusty royal family. That honeymoon didn’t last. Now the couple wants independence, saying the pressure of life as full-time royals is unbearable. And a debate...
Biden's New Endorsement Reflects Battle for Latino Support
Joe Biden’s presidential bid got a boost Monday from one of the leading Latinos in Congress, with the chairman of the Hispanic Caucus' political arm endorsing the former vice president as Democrats’ best hope to defeat President Donald Trump. “People realize it’s a matter of life and death for certain...
Opinion: How to Be Black in 42 Million Ways
National Football League Hall of Famer Terrell Owens started it; then, actor and game-show host Nick Cannon piled on. The beginning: In November, quarterback/pariah/social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick participated in undoubtedly the most scrutinized workout/audition in pro sports history. Kaepernick essentially had been de facto banished from the NFL since...
The Kanye Effect? New Polls Show Black Support for Trump Surging
Rush Limbaugh could hardly contain his excitement. “We’ve got three polls today showing Donald Trump at 30 percent or higher with black voters,” he told his national radio audience on Monday. “We’ve got Emerson, we’ve got Rasmussen and we’ve got Marist!” Rush was echoing a Trump 2020 campaign email entitled...