What must be done to recreate America’s Black Wall Streets? In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several segregated African American neighborhoods took it upon themselves to establish their own versions of the centers for commerce, industry, and entrepreneurship that white Americans had locked them out of. Because New York’s Wall Street and other […]
If you were asked to provide a list of Black icons of civil rights, social justice, and activism, what figures would you name? It’s very likely that several mainstays of those categories would come up: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, etc. Maybe you’d stray slightly off the beaten path and
Behind the Scenes: Three Black Icons You Might Not Know Read More »
It has been widely noted that the ongoing scourge of American health inequity was especially highlighted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in racial minority communities proliferate at rates completely incomparable to those in white communities. Not only are racial minorities—primarily Black and Latino Americans—more likely to get the virus,
In a 1968 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, author James Baldwin unleashed a strikingly eloquent monologue that is still celebrated today as one of his most powerful. He was responding to a claim by another guest on the show, Yale philosophy professor Paul Weiss, that some of Baldwin’s earlier comments in the episode exaggerated
Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till” places the spotlight on Mamie Till-Mobley, the somewhat unsung heroine of the events following the 1955 lynching of her fourteen-year-old son Emmett. Though many Americans and others across the world are familiar with the tragedy of Emmett Till’s murder, less know about his mother’s subsequent dedication to the pursuit and justice, freedom,
Mamie Till-Mobley Biopic Till Uses Its Time Wisely Read More »
There was much at stake in the 2022 Washington, DC municipal elections. Several hotly contested primary races set the tone in the summer, and multiple general races this November—including the one for mayor—had history-making implications. Bowser for Three In a surprise to no one, Democratic incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser defeated her three opponents without complication
New Faces in New Places: The 2022 DC Municipal Elections Read More »
The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is home to one of the largest collections of items in the Smithsonian network. With nearly eight hundred fifty thousand items to its name, there’s hardly a corner or corridor lacking something to show. Even its loneliest nooks — a path leading only to a small seating
The National Museum of the American Indian: An Overview Read More »
Washington, DC, like other hotbeds of culture, has many claims to local and national fame. Its monuments, museums, and political institutions attract visitors and transplants from far and wide. Half-smokes and mumbo sauce are distinct and delicious products of the District. The influence of go-go music and Georgetown’s Blues Alley club reach well beyond their
Love, Hope, and Art: The Murals of Luis Peralta Del Valle Read More »
The American news cycle has been buzzing for months with a particularly bizarre political story. As the nation faces record-high numbers of asylum seekers at the Southern border, three Republican governors—Greg Abbott of Texas, Doug Ducey of Arizona, and Ron DeSantis of Florida—have resorted to busing thousands of migrants to Democratic stronghold cities Washington, New
African Americans have wondered for centuries how to get their most stubborn and bigoted countrymen to use their common sense and sympathize with them. Each generation, free or enslaved, has brought forth the birth of new methods and the reconfiguration of old ones as a means of survival. The sycophantic slave or servant, the Negro
