This year I had the wonderful opportunity to interview and later meet Ilyasah Shabazz in conjunction with her children’s book about her father, “Malcolm Little.” Check out my recent conversation with Ilyasah Shabazz about her latest, book, “X: A Novel.”
What’s happening in Ferguson, Missouri around the killing of unarmed teenager Mike Brown is playing out according to a familiar script. The timeline of events…
R&B crooner The-Dream put his usual love tracks to the side for the video release of “Black”, a mellow, darker song about race and inequality in the United States. At one point the singer even references the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X’s legacy, Nelson “Madiba” Mandela and Marvin Gaye, singing: And I’ll […]
Malcolm X and rap music have always fit together like a needle in the groove, connected by struggle, strength and defiance. But three recent episodes involving the use or misuse of Malcolm and other black icons have raised the question: Has rap lost touch with black history? Chart-topping rapstress Nicki Minaj provoked widespread outrage with […]
As Black History Month draws to a close this week, so might another national figure of the African American legacy. The Charles H. Wright Museum, the…
Justin Bieber Eyes Atlanta Real Estate, Still Wants Street Cred Looks like Justin Bieber may be trying to take over another city. The Biebs is setting…
Nicki Minaj’s cover art to her latest single “Lookin A** N*gga” is sparking outrage after the Young Money rapper superimposed her name and the song…
For Black History Month, elementary school students at P.S. 201 in Flushing, N.Y., were tasked with writing about any prominent historical figure but when a…
It wasn’t enough that party promoters thought using Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s likeness wearing gold chains to advertise a party was cool or that Russell Simmons thought making fun of Harriet Tubman was funny or that Li’l Wayne thought that comparing rough sex to Emmit Till’s death was okay. Now rapstress Nicki Minaj has gone and […]
Sept. 15, 1963 or Nov. 22, 1963? Which date stands out more in your memory? Most Americans who were alive in 1963 would probably choose Nov. 22. Indeed, even if you weren’t alive in 1963, it would be hard not to know what happened on that day. For the past two or three weeks, it’s […]
Afros, locks and naturals – all symbols of a powerful movement that began with the word of John S. Rock, an African-American abolitionist who was the first black person to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Rock would paraphrase the term “Black is Beautiful” during a speech back […]
The family of Malcolm X has launched a lawsuit to stop the publication of a diary of the late civil-rights leader’s last year, reports The Guardian. “The Diary of Malcolm X,” a reproduction of a private diary kept as he travelled to the Middle East and Africa immediately before his assassination, is due to be […]
