Posts by dr_fran
Oprah Set to Executive Produce Upcoming Sidney Poitier Documentary
Winfrey is set to executive produce a new documentary which will explore Poitier’s personal upbringing and professional rise to cultural preeminence, the latter of which cemented his place in history as the first Black man to ever win an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Read MoreAmerica’s Black Holocaust Museum receives a $10 million commitment!
America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) is the recipient of a $10 million commitment made by an anonymous donor through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. This transformational commitment is in support of ABHM’s recent announcement to reopen on February 25, 2022, and a strategic plan by NMBL Strategies that provides a roadmap to growth and sustainability for generations to come.
Read MoreThese Texas teens stayed silent about racism. Then their Black principal was suspended.
At Colleyville Heritage High in Texas, BIPOC students walked out of class to defend James Whitfield, their first Black principal. He has been accused by White school district officials of embracing critical race theory and is in danger of being fired. Whitfield, who is black, had created a diversity committee including students.
Read MoreMelvin Van Peebles, Champion of New Black Cinema, Dies at 89
Melvin Van Peebles, known as the godfather of modern Black cinema and a trailblazer in American independent movies, has died. He was 89. A Renaissance man whose work spanned books, theater and music, Mr. Van Peebles is best known for his third feature film, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” Mr. Van Peebles’s fiercely independent legacy can be seen in some of the most notable Black films of the past half-century.
Read MoreHe Taught About White Privilege and Got Fired. Now He’s Fighting to Get His Job Back
In his Contemporary Issues class that day at a Tennessee school, social studies teacher Matthew Hawn led a discussion of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha WI. Over the next several months, Hawn, 43, used the news cycle to show students, almost all of whom are white, how systemic racism is an indisputable element of American life. When he got fired, Hawn became one of the first casualties from the nation’s debate this year over “critical race theory” and whether or how teachers should acknowledge racism in class.
Read MoreGeorge Marshall Clark: Unmarked Grave of Milwaukee Lynching Victim Gets Headstone After 160 Years
Nearly two centuries after his brief life and brutal death were entered into public record as the only recorded lynching in Milwaukee history, George Marshall Clark’s unmarked grave was memorialized with a granite headstone during a special ceremony at Forest Home Cemetery on September 8. The moving event was sponsored by ABHM and Forest Home Cemetery.
Read MoreWatch: America’s Racist History of Labor
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 after a railroad strike led by the American Railway Union known as the Pullman Strike. This was a turning point in the labor movement, though it didn’t benefit all American workers. Black Pullman porters weren’t allowed to participate in the strike because they were not allowed in the white unions. But black people did unionize. In this exhibit, you can watch a short video about the history of the Labor Movement.
Read MoreHate crimes rise to highest level in 12 years amid increasing attacks on Black and Asian people, FBI says
The number of hate crimes in the United States rose in 2020 to the highest level in 12 years, propelled by increasing assaults targeting Black and Asian people, the FBI reported Monday.
Read MoreLadies First: Smithsonian Hip-Hop Anthology Honors Women’s Contributions To The Genre
Kierna Mayo, a media maverick and an original staffer for groundbreaking hip-hop magazine The Source, has been one of the premier record-keepers of rap music. With an especial focus on the women of the genre (the debut 1999 issue of Mayo’s late magazine, Honey, featured Lauryn Hill on the cover), she has lovingly bridged the gap between lyricists and fans. Her essay “Hip-Hop Heroines” is a celebration of women’s contributions to hip-hop and is featured in the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap, which is available now.
Read More‘Cruel, Unfair and Racist’: Black immigrants whose fathers are U.S. citizens push to overturn law that keeps them from obtaining citizenship
Enacted in 1940, the Guyer Rule prevents U.S.-citizen fathers, but not U.S.-citizen mothers, from passing their citizenship status to foreign-born, non-marital children – in other words, children who were born “out of wedlock.” The rule disproportionately restricts how nonwhite parents could secure citizenship for their children – and for decades has been maintained for just that reason.
Kelvin Silva is one of many Black men held at Stewart Detention Center. He is facing deportation because of this archaic and racially inequitable law that prevented him from becoming a U.S. citizen as a child, even though his father was a naturalized U.S. citizen. Were it not for the Guyer Rule, Silva – who was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in the United States – would have automatically gained citizenship when he was just 11 years old. Read about his situation and those of other Black men in immigrant detention.
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