Research says calling people racist doesn’t reduce racial bias

Researchers stumbled on a radical tactic for reducing another person’s bigotry: a frank, brief conversation. The key to these conversations, though, is empathy. And it will take a lot of empathy — not just for one conversation but many, many conversations in several settings over possibly many years. It won’t be easy, but if we want to address some people’s deeply entrenched racial attitudes, it may be the only way.

Read More

Chicago’s Grim Era of Police Torture

The Chicago Torture Archive, an online research repository set to open early next year, provides a chilling insight into the grisly period from the 1970s to the 1990s when the Chicago Police Department’s infamous torture crew rounded up more than 100 African-American men who were shocked with cattle prods, beaten with telephone books and suffocated with plastic bags until many confessed to crimes.

Read More

“Always In Season” Film on Lynching and Restoration to Screen in Milwaukee

Always in Season is a feature-length documentary film that shows the impact of past and current racial terrorism on our country today through the stories of four communities affected by lynchings. Screening at ABHM’s 2017 Founder’s Day Gathering for Racial Repair and Reconciliation will be followed by a Q & A and small group discussions with representatives from groups around the country who are healing through commemorations of lynchings and other forms of racial terrorism.

Read More

Hundreds Dedicate Lynching Marker to Anthony Crawford in Abbeville, South Carolina

A century ago, a white mob beat, stabbed, shot, and hung Mr. Crawford, a 56-year-old black farmer, in the Abbeville town square, after he dared to argue with a white merchant over the price of cottonseed. The patriarch of a large, multi-generational family, and the owner of 427 acres of land, Mr. Crawford was a successful farmer and leader whose murder had long-reaching effects. In October 2016, hundreds gathered in Abbeville for a Freedom School, during which college students, activists, and leaders led discussions about our country’s history of racial injustice and its contemporary legacies. Those present included more than 100 of Anthony Crawford’s descendants, who wore black armbands and buttons in his memory, as well as members of the families of Emmett Till, Ida B. Wells, and Malcolm X, who came to lend support and words of encouragement.

Read More

Restoring Black History

Celebrated historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains the historical significance of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, a project 100 years in the making, opening September 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Read More