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.

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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…

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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…

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Black activists say Jan. 6 insurrection was part of white supremacist playbook

By Jessica Floyd, The Grio EXCLUSIVE: Voting rights advocates connect Capitol attack to racial riots throughout history that sought a common goal to strike fear in Black voters and anyone who validated their political power. LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigations on Jan. 6, 2021 notifying…

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Louisiana Governor Pardons Homer Plessy From ‘Separate But Equal’ Ruling

By BET staff, BET News The landmark 1896 case solidified Jim Crow. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has pardoned Homer Adolph Plessy, of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. According to CBS, Edwards signed the pardon during a ceremony outside the former rail station in New Orleans where Plessy was arrested 130 years ago for sitting in a white area…

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