Black History

The Solomon Northup Effect – The Enslavement of Free Black People Then and Now

I\’m going to pull the thread one more time. Writing about the slave trade in D.C. led me to the story of Philp Reed. His marker at Harmony Memorial Park was beside Solomon Northup, the author of 12 Years a Slave. The connection lies in the fact that Northup, a free Black man, was kidnapped …

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Kicking Off Black History Month – Slave Markets in D.C.

Let\’s kick off Black History Month with a scarcely reported fact about our nation\’s capital – slavery. The District\’s proximity to Maryland and Virginia, both slave states, made it an active and profitable slave depot. The very mall which fueled the January 6th insurrection was a major marketplace for slave trading. It\’s probably also befitting …

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The Militarization of the Police Force and The Black Panther Party

Maybe we can look back to December 8, 1969, as the day the police decided to militarize itself against black people. There\’s an Opinion piece on the Los Angeles Times website that pronounces that \”50 years ago, LAPD raided the Black Panthers. SWAT teams have been targeting Black communities ever since\”. This article dissects how …

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