The celebration started with the freed slaves of Galveston, Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the South in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War in 1865. ... read more »

Have you ever noticed that when driving through the southern United States you are hard-pressed to find a city or town without a memorial to the Confederate war dead, but you are equally hard-pressed to find a city or town with a monument commemorating fallen Revolutionary War soldiers? ... read more »

“With the racial divide stoked by President Donald Trump’s racial bias, the need for some healing among the races is a progressive and necessary policy and redress and reparations promote this healing so that we can move toward a less factionalized, less racially divided country,” Minami said. ... read more »

This is in joyful and grateful homage to our illustrious foremother, Harriet Tubman, in this month of her transition and ascension, March 10, 1913. We offer sacred words and water to this leader and liberator, this all-seasons soldier, abolitionist, freedom fighter, strategist, teacher, nurse, advocate of human, civil and women’s rights, and this family woman: daughter of her parents and people, sister, wife, mother and aunt. At the heart, center and core of the life, work and struggle of Harriet Tubman is her focus on freedom. It is from the outset an inclusive and indivisible freedom: the collective practice of self-determination in and for community. Thus, it is not enough for her to free herself, for that to her was only an escape from the immediate bondage of the devilish enslaver and the radically evil system they built and maintained. And it was not enough to have crossed a line that in most minds meant leaving the land of bondage and entering the land of “freedom” and forgetting those left behind. ... read more »

Those who feel America is a post-racial society tend to be either die-hard conservatives   or so naïve, they might believe there are snow-capped mountains in Florida.  But by any measure, public education, the criminal injustice system, poverty, etc., White privilege and its cohort racism, remain the prime barriers to Blacks receiving actual justice and equality.  ... read more »

The midterms revealed that the margin for victory in Georgia is within reach. Abrams lost to Republican Brian Kemp by about 55,000 votes out of nearly 4 million votes cast. Clearly, a surge in the size of the Black voter base could close such a gap and end a drought in state representation dating to Reconstruction.  ... read more »

Over the course of the 150+ years since Emancipation, the descendants of slave owners have continuously operated to prevent Blacks from pursuing the American Dream. In the face of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, southern municipalities, cities and states passed Jim Crow laws denying African-Americans the right to vote, travel, buy land, possess a gun, get an education, and so forth.  ... read more »

Reparations for the descendants of African slaves has been talked about ad infinitum, yet there has been virtually no legislative action taken to make this happen.    (Congressman John Conyers could not even to get a reparations bill out of committee for more than twenty years—to simply do a study on reparations.)  Today’s column summarizes a “major” conference at Harvard University about slavery, universities and reparations.  A New York Times article by Jennifer Schussler, Confronting Academia’s Ties to Slavery, recaps the conference. ... read more »

12.5 million Africans shipped during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, fewer than 388,000 arrived in the United States. In the late 15th century, the advancement of seafaring technologies created a new Atlantic that would change the world forever. As ships began connecting West Africa with Europe and the Americas, new fortunes were sought and native populations were decimated. ... read more »

The state approved a historical marker for Lane, the sixth sign in Raleigh to honor a former slave. Sometime in June, said Ansley Wegner of the N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program, the man born property of Sherwood Haywood will be recognized on Edenton Street, just across the street from the Capitol where he sold pipes for 10 cents each. ... read more »

A Black Democratic lawmaker called on Texas to immediately remove a Confederate plaque in the state Capitol that rejects slavery as an underlying cause of the Civil War after the state's attorney general said Wednesday that a legislative vote isn't needed. ... read more »

Each year, on Aug. 23, the United Nations hosts an International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition to remind the world of the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade. ... read more »

The discoveries were made during a construction and expansion project at the 1930s-era Baldwin Hall. ... read more »

In today’s modern world of cell phones, computers and the internet, it is easy to take for granted the sheer ease and expedience at the reach of our fingertips. ... read more »

The reckoning that began with the Civil Rights Movement has continued; the memorial is a testament to that. People of good will want the healing to continue. The vibrancy and prosperity of the New South requires that the healing continue. But to heal wounds, you have to take the shrapnel out first. To move to reconciliation, you must start with the truth.  ... read more »