Tortuous History Traced in Sunken Slave Ship Found Off South Africa

In 1794, a Portuguese slave ship left Mozambique for a 7,000-mile voyage to Brazil and the sugar plantations that awaited its cargo of black men and women. Shackled in the ship’s hold were between 400 and 500 slaves, pressed flesh to flesh with their backs on the floor. With the exception of daily breaks to exercise, the slaves would spend the bulk of the estimated four-month journey in the dark of the hold.

The journey lasted only 24 days. The São José Paquete Africa came apart violently on two reefs not far from Cape Town. The captain, crew and half of the slaves survived. An estimated 212 slaves perished in the sea. The remnants of the São José have been found, right where the ship went down. It is the first time that the wreckage of a slaving ship that went down with slaves aboard has been recovered.

The new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will open in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington DC, will house an exhibit of the ship and its cargo.

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It’s Time to Stop Blaming Black-on-Black Crime

For every unarmed black man, woman or child killed by unrestrained police officers, there’s an intellectually impoverished response when black people get visibly upset about it: What about black-on-black crime?

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Legendary Blues Musician B.B. King Dead At 89

This tribute to the great blues musician B.B. King, who passed away on May 14, 2015, includes two videos: a trailer for a movie about his extraordinary life and another in which he performs one of his most iconic songs. King won the first of his 15 Grammy Awards in 1951 and joined the Grammy Hall of Fame 47 years later. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and the R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Rolling Stone magazine also ranked him at No. 3 in its 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarist of all time.

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