Little Known Black History Facts
As a dancer for one of the world’s top ballet companies, Misty Copeland is familiar with the high pressure and expectations that comes with her position. After starring in the critically-acclaimed debut of Swan Lake at the Metropolitan Opera House last week, Copeland inches one step closer to making history as the American Ballet Theatre’s […]
Before Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj, funk singer Betty Davis was at the forefront of displaying unfiltered sexuality in a genre dominated by men. In her short career, Davis influenced the careers and lives of a handful of musical legends in their own right, becoming something of an cult icon herself. Davis was born […]
Jeanine Menze, also known as Jeanine McIntosh-Menze, is the first Black woman to become a pilot for the United States Coast Guard military branch. Lieutenant Menze is just one of two Black women pilots in the entire Coast Guard. Menze was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved with her family to Canada before they […]
Tennessee State University is celebrating its 103rd year in existence this month, and is recognized as one of the top HBCUs in the South. TSU is the only state-funded HBCU in Tennessee and some of it’s alumni have achieved fame across a variety of fields. Nestled in Nashville, the school began as the Agricultural […]
The late Octavia Butler was a celebrated science fiction author and one of the finest writers in the genre. Butler, who was the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, has won several awards for her work both in her lifetime and posthumously. Butler was born on June 22, 1947 […]
The Mother Emanuel A.M.E. shooting tragedy in Charleston, S.C. was another in a long line of racially-fueled violence throughout history aimed at the Black church. Denmark Vesey, a former slave and organizer of a failed slave revolt in 1822, was a founding member of the church and his connection to recent events raises some questions. […]
As many around the nation and the world prepare to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, also known Emancipation Day, a variety of celebrations will take place. Figuring in the center of those celebrations and events honoring the holiday will be music related to Juneteenth, hearkening back to when African-American spiritual songs galvanized enslaved Blacks […]
As the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth nears, many are familiar with the holiday’s significance celebrating the thousands of slaves finally being freed in Galveston, Texas and across the Deep South on June 19, 1865. In an event that preceded Juneteenth, also 150 years ago in the same month, famed orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass […]
Jaramogi [Jah-Rah-Moe-Jee] Abebe [Ah-Beh-Beh] Agyeman [Ah-Jee-Mahn] was a religious leader in Detroit who created a church movement that combined the teachings of Christianity with Black nationalism. Agyeman was moved to start the movement after working in integrated churches and seeing a necessity for empowerment within the Black community. Agyeman was born Albert B. Cleage […]
Major league pitcher Dock Ellis became a household name for various reasons aside from his prodigious talent on the mound. Ellis, who later in life became a drug counselor, is perhaps best known for pitching a no-hitter game while high on LSD. Dock Phillip Ellis Jr. was born March 11, 1945 in Los Angeles, […]
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray was a feminist and civil rights icon, blazing a trail for racial and gender equality in a time where women, especially Black women, were seen as woefully inferior. The late Rev. Murray might be best known to some as the first African-American woman to be ordained a Episcopal priest, but […]
The jazz music genre lost one of its most important artists with the loss of saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Coleman, who ushered in a new sound in jazz, died Thursday, June 11 in New York City at the age of 85. Coleman is credited with creating the term “free jazz,” a style that did away […]
