Americans Won’t Be Free Until We Face Our Racist History

“True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality,” a new HBO documentary coming out June 26, digs into Stevenson’s work with the Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative, fighting racism in the criminal justice system for over 30 years, largely by defending poor, black people on death row.

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Was the Real Lone Ranger a Black Man?

Although born into slavery, Bass Reeves went on to gain a reputation for bravery and non-compromising honesty as a law man in Indian Territory after the civil war. The only thing that made him hang up his badge and gun was a new 1907 Oklahoma state law that banned this American Descendant of Slaves from holding office as a deputy marshal. Author Art T. Burton wrote the book, Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves and stated that Bass Reeves might have inspired the story of the Lone Ranger.

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This Could Be the First Slavery Reparations Policy in America

Georgetown University under-graduate students are taking the lead in addressing the issue of compensation for American descendants of slaves (ADOS). They will vote to tax themselves (reconciliation fee) to create a fund to benefit the descendants of 272 slaves sold to save the university.

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When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color

Manifest Destiny as a mind-set and working model has made it clear that America has a duty to civilize the rest of the uncivilized world. The uncivilized masses are to be patient and calm and not “rock the boat”,as they await the privileges that come with Christianity and democracy.

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How Black Citizenship Was Won, and Lost

In this week’s New York Times Race/Related section, Jennifer Schuessler brings word of a New-York Historical Society exhibit shedding new light on the lives of African-Americans during the Reconstruction era. From covering the legal and political battles that were fought the nation over to showcasing artifacts of the smaller, day-to-day, personal battles of individuals African-Americans and their families, this exhibit helps to remind today’s divided America not only of just how dangerous such division can become, but just how important the fight for truth, justice, and equality really is.

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