Tag: African American history

If you think Martha's Vineyard is just about yachts and lobster rolls, think again. As thousands prepare to gather in Oak Bluffs this month for the 24th Annual Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, we're looking at the history of the gorgeous, historic island revered as the go-to summer capital of Black excellence and cultural heritage.

As questions continue to swirl around the mysterious death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, another story has taken on a life of its own online. Across social media, users have been claiming that Wells was a descendant of legendary journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells. The theory spread quickly, with many suggesting the connection made the case even more symbolic, given Mississippi's long history of racial violence. There's just one problem: No evidence suggests the two are actually related.

Philadelphia became the first and only American city to drop a bomb on its own residents. The target was MOVE, a Black liberation organization that had spent years clashing with city officials. What followed would become one of the most devastating and controversial chapters in modern American history.

July is officially National Watermelon Month—a U.S. Senate-approved celebration of one of summer's favorite fruits. But behind those family backyard BBQs lies a piece of history that was left out of the textbooks. Long before the fruit was hijacked and weaponized as a racist stereotype, the watermelon was actually a powerful symbol of Black freedom and economic independence.

Walking alone into Little Rock Central High School, Elizabeth Eckford remained composed as an angry white mob screamed insults behind her. The photograph became one of the defining images of school desegregation, capturing her quiet courage and dignity in the face of hatred and intimidation during the fight for educational equality.

The 250th anniversary of America arrives as historians confront the full, complicated truth of the Revolution and Black soldiers, spies and petitioners whose stories have been marginalized. While around 5,000 Black men fought for the Patriots, thousands more fought for the British. From double agents securing victory at Yorktown to Dunmore's 1775 proclamation pulling enslaved people into British lines, Black contributions were vast and often crucial. Figures like James Armistead Lafayette, a double agent who gained freedom in 1787, and Belinda Sutton, who petitioned for reparations based on her decades of forced labor, reveal how the Revolution extended into petitions, education and early Black community building.