Sheila Carter-Jones: Running into a high school classmate years after
I was the only, back then Negro, girl
in a class of four hundred waves splashing,
tossing me about in the crash
Richard Wright: Haiku
I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
Video: Segregated by Design
Black ghettos are no accident – how state-sponsored racism shaped US cities.
Mike Schneider: Father Ted & Voting Rights
Republicans have closed polling places, reduced early voting, purged voter rolls, and added ID requirements. Nearly all these changes are in predominantly African-American districts.
Shanna B. Tiayon: Serotonin and the Garden of Good Eating
The garden was literally healing me. The low to mild depression I had been cycling in and out of started to break, and I felt lighter, happier, and more self-accepting.
James Q Whitman: Why the Nazis studied American race laws for inspiration
The US had race-based immigration law, admired by racists all over the world; and the Nazis, like their Right-wing European successors today (and so many US voters) were obsessed with the dangers posed by immigration.
Video: Terrance Hayes, “American Sonnets For My Past and Future Assassin”
Terrance Hayes discusses his poetry collection, American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin at Politics and Prose in Washington DC on 7/16/18. Written during the first two hundred days … Continue reading
Leah Penniman: By Reconnecting With Soil, We Heal the Planet and Ourselves
Enslavement and sharecropping cannot erase thousands of years of Black people’s sacred relationship with the land.
Video: Alone
What would it mean to marry someone behind bars? Directed by Garrett Bradley Running time: 12:19 Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the video. … Continue reading
Liz Brazile: The Power of Sharing Stories
As Joe Clemons was growing up, he used to listen to family members share stories. Some stories were imaginative and rousing, while others were more monotonous. Nevertheless, hearing accounts of … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: The Lynching Museum — A Pilgrimage
Truth and reconciliation are sequential. You can’t have reconciliation until you have truth. — Bryan Stevenson . On the 28 April 1836, the steamboat “Flora” docked in St. Louis. The … Continue reading
Lucas Johnson: Remembering Dorothy Cotton, freedom educator
Dorothy Cotton was the director of education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the King years. (Twitter / @natcivilrightsmuseum) . On June 10, the world lost another veteran of … Continue reading
Charles Davidson: The Slaves of my Ancestors
Slaves Waiting for Sale by Eyre Crowe – Richmond, Virginia, 1853. . DICK, STEPHEN, CHARITY, AND LUCY were their given names — these beloved “Negroes.” They were the propertied slaves owned … Continue reading
Margaret Walker: I Want to Write
I want to write I want to write the songs of my people. I want to hear them singing melodies in the dark. I want to catch the last floating … Continue reading
