Breaking News! History in the Making
Meet Emilie Kouatchou, Broadway’s 1st Black Christine in ‘Phantom of the Opera’
By Randi Richardson, NBC News Kouatchou opens up about taking over a historic role and the significance of Black representation on Broadway. Broadway’s groundbreaking musical “Phantom of the Opera” has once again made history. The musical is the longest-running show on Broadway, celebrating 34 years last month. It marked the milestone by debuting its first…
![NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson, left, in 1962, and Artemis astronaut Stephanie Wilson in 2007. [Courtesy: NASA]](https://b2580698.smushcdn.com/2580698/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/katherine-johnson-stephanie-wilson-nasa-500x327.jpg?lossy=0&strip=1&webp=1 "katherine-johnson-stephanie-wilson-nasa")
NASA’s African American History: From Hidden Figures to Artemis
With Dr. Jessica Watkins poised to become the first black woman to set foot on the International Space Station, we take a look at NASA’s push to include more African Americans in the agency’s quest to expore space
Six Highlights From the Black Film Archive
Next week, the Black Film Archive — a living register of Black cinema — will officially turn six months old. We asked Maya Cade to select a favorite film from various decades of the archive, these are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How the Black queer community is re-imagining the family tree
Expelled from their families, LGBTQ people seek others who will become their chosen family, and some go as far as creating family trees.
“Fannie Lou Hamer’s America: An America Reframed Special” Airs Feb. 22
Fannie Lou Hamer is known as a Mississippi sharecropper who boldly fought for human rights. WORLD Channel and PBS partner to debut a new special that tells the activist’s story.
White Violence and Black Success: Why HBCUs Receive Bomb Threats
Some HCBUs have canceled classes after threats of bombs and shootings this Black History Month. Such threats illustrate America’s legacy of white violence against black people.
These Black candidates are aiming to make Black history in 2022 midterm elections
The 2022 midterm elections are officially underway as early voting kicked off in Texas on Monday. Lee Merritt, Cheri Beasley, Anthony Brown, and Malcolm Kenyatta are all set to make Black history if successful.
I’m A Black Doctor. I Got Death Threats For Speaking About Racism — And It Gets Worse.
When Dr. Amanda Calhoun spoke of her experience with racism as a black woman and doctor, she received pushback–and death threats.
Artwork from the Black Lives Matter memorial has a new home: the Library of Congress
For months after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Washington DC, signs and posters hung near the White House. The Library of Congress has now added images of some of these works to a digital collection.
Black Olympians to watch during the Winter Games
Seven talented Black athletes will don their gear and step into the cold to represent Team U.S.A. at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel ought to know why he’s being asked about race
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, hired by a team that’s been accused of discriminating against Black men, doesn’t describe himself as Black even though, according to the American rules of race, he is. McDaniel was born in the United States to a white mother and a Black father, which, according to the way race is understood here, makes him Black. That means that the National Football League can conceivably use his hiring as a kind of rebuttal to Brian Flores, the head coach the Dolphins just fired.
Mom and 6-Year Old Son Write Black History Activity Book For Kids
Author Andrea Stephenson announces her sixth book, an educational activity book for children that focuses on black scientists in history and cultivates interest in STEM fields. Just 6 years old, her son Corban helped bring the book to life.
The growing movement to save Black cemeteries
Greenwood Cemetery was the first commercial cemetery serving the black community in St. Louis. But without dedicated caretakers, it fell into neglect and attracted vandals. The Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association has taken up the cause, like similar organizations around the nation, of preserving these pieces of history.
10 young Black changemakers across history
These 10 black youths made waves with their bravery, activism, and ingenuity, and the ripples can still be felt around the world.
10 Black Women Innovators and the Awesome Things They Brought Us
From a better hairbrush to modern 3D technology, ten things that might never have existed without the invention or innovation of black women.
What Happened After LA Schools Cut Police Funds and Hired Mental Health Staff for Black Students
For years, black students have struggled to feel safe at school with police watching their every move. The Los Angeles Unified School District responded to months of protests by slashing the school police budget by $25 million to fund a plan dedicated to black students’ mental and academic well-being. It’s now been in place for a year.
Black History Can Do More Than Counter White Racism
Black history is a movement of ideas targeted to redress the long history of anti-Blackness. Anti-Blackness is a totalizing system of thought that positions Black people, including their bodies, culture, and value systems, as bad or dysfunctional. But Black history does more than counter anti-Black ideologies; it also documents the social contexts, experiences, aesthetics, and intellectual pursuits of African Americans. This idea of both countering white racism and writing and creating from one’s standpoint—removed from the white gaze—is central to Black history.
In ‘South to America,’ Imani Perry travels below the Mason-Dixon to shed light on the soul of a nation
By Elaina Patton, NBC News In her new book, “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” Imani Perry engages with the long literary tradition of writing about one’s travels through the South. Joining writers such as Albert Murray, James Baldwin and V.S. Naipaul, the Alabama native charts…
Family trees fill in the gaps for Black people seeking their ancestral roots
By Curtis Bunn, NBC News Black people have been able to connect with the past and give new agency to their identities through building family trees and researching their family histories. Growing up in Philadelphia, Amber Jackson said she knew so little of her history that she felt disconnected from who she was. “They didn’t…
We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was
What is known about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade? We know a great deal about the scale of human trafficking across the Atlantic Ocean and about the people aboard each ship. Much of that research is available to the public in the form of the SlaveVoyages database. A detailed repository of information on individual ships, individual voyages and even individual people, it is a groundbreaking tool for scholars of slavery, the slave trade and the Atlantic world. And it continues to grow. Last year, the team behind SlaveVoyages introduced a new data set with information.
Ida B. Wells, Black journalist and suffragist, honored with new Barbie doll
By Adela Suliman, Washington Post Black American journalist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells will have her likeness transformed into a Barbie doll to honor her historic achievements. Wells, who was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862 during the Civil War, went on to break boundaries as a prominent suffragist fighting to expand…