Whether it was the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, anti-war protests, riots after the untimely death of iconic figures, it was music that set the mood of our people and indeed the country and world. Music calmed anxieties and eased some pain. Marvin Gaye’s, Ecology Song (Mercy Mercy Me), a prayer for the land and air, man’s dominion. Marvin knew we had abused the earth, he said it in a song. Edwin Starr didn’t …
Black Music Association Remarks at a White House Dinner Honoring the Association. June 7, 1979 How many of you know what month this is? Somebody said June. Right on! This is Black Music Month. As you know, the purpose of the Black Music Association is to preserve, protect, and perpetuate black music on an international basis. And the time to do it on an international basis is right now at the White House, the …
The United States Constitution guarantees its inhabitants liberty and equal opportunity. Historically, however, these fundamental rights have not always been provided as pledged. The American system of education is one such example. From the earliest times in American history, the U.S. educational system mandated separate schools for children based solely on race. In many instances, the schools for African American children were substandard facilities with out-of-date textbooks and insufficient supplies. Court cases against segregated schools …
One and a half million Black Men are missing. For nearly 50 years, census data has shown alarming statistics for cities throughout the United States that have had a dramatic disappearance of African-American males. A recent report by the New York Times targets three main reasons for the substantial disproportionate gap in genders in the African-American community. The New York Times report in a section called “The Upshot” (April 20, 2015). Staggering information regarding missing …
At 12:52 p.m. on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, commonly known as Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka. The opinion stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and that the separate but equal doctrine, which allowed states to maintain racially segregated schools, had “no place” in public education. The team of lawyers included Chief Legal Counsel for the NAACP, …
Homer Plessy was an Octoroon, he was also a soldier in the war for African-American civil rights. That war began before the Civil War and before Homer Plessy challenged the segregation laws in Louisiana in 1892. Plessy, like Rosa Parks, was chosen to challenge the segregation laws in public transportation. He boarded a train and sat in a car that was reserved for whites, then ordered to leave the train but refused. Policemen arrived and …
Henry “Box” Brown (b. 1816 – 1889?); On March 30, 1849, William Still, (the conductor of the Underground Railroad) and other members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee (a group of abolitionists that worked with runaway slaves to subvert the Fugitive Slave Act) greeted Henry Brown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as a compromise between Southern slave-holders and Northern Free States. …
The Dred Scott decision (Dred Scott v. Sanford; March 6, 1857) of the United States Supreme Court, set back human and civil rights for African-Americans by nearly a decade (considering the end of the Civil War; 1865 or the new Constitution Amendments; 13, 14, & 15th). One of the primary obstacles to the “set back” was the Chief Justice of the court, Roger B. Taney. When you think of Roger B. Taney (March 17, 1777 …
Welcome to our Newsletter (The Review) Subscription Form page. We invite you to stay in touch with us through our frequent communications. Our newsletters are sent only to subscribers and compiles frequent and popular posts. African-Americans through no intent of their own is a separate ethnic group. Citizens of the United States whose ancestry is Sub-Saharan African, and include the descendants of African slaves. Blacks through the centuries have been treated as inferior and incapable. We …
Voter Registration Tests & Protests: Chapter 2: a series that chronicles the events in the Selma, Alabama area prior to Bloody Sunday and ending with the brutal attack by Klansmen on Viola Liuzzo. A new voter registration test implemented a few months before the March 7th march to Montgomery was challenged by the U. S. Justice Department on January 15th. It was common for African-Americans to be tested when registering to vote and in some cases …
Malcolm X remains an iconic figure in the Black community. His original positions on race, government and economics in the United States still resonate. Take the Quiz below to recount important facts in the life of an American legend.
On May 13, 1862, the crew of the Planter went ashore for the evening, leaving Smalls to guard the ship and its contents. Smalls loaded the ship with his wife, children and 12 other slaves from the city and sailed it to the area of the harbor where Union ships had formed their blockade.
Bessie Coleman is the first African-American to hold an international pilot license. Traveling to Europe, Coleman took part in airshows. Continuing to perform in shows upon her return to the United States, Coleman was very popular, she was known as “Queen Bess”.
