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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow
Mammy Statue JC Museum Ferris
Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow
Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.
Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters
Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.
An Iconic Lynching in the North
Lynching Quilt
Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two
Joshua Glover Plaque
Some Exhibits to Come – Three Centuries Of Enslavement
Harriet Tubman, "The Conductor," with fugitive slaves in Underground Railroad station
Bibliography – Three Centuries of Enslavement
Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali
Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity
Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie
Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage
Slaveship Stowage Plan
What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829
Arno Michaels
Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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A coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 caused the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China before spreading worldwide in 2020. This global pandemic was not equally destructive, however. The virus itself was more harmful to elderly people and those with pre-existing health conditions. However, economic and racial inequalities prevented some people from accessing necessary screening, treatment, or vaccines or following medical advice such as social distancing or quarantining. Medical racism also played a role during COVID-19, and some Black patients formed support groups after the medical system ignored them.  The pandemic also highlighted how some medical equipment worked poorly for Black patients.

Nearly 7 million people died of COVID globally, with millions more surviving the disease that raged for multiple years. In the United States, Black people remained at risk while others decreased their concern, which was entirely warranted. African Americans experienced a higher death rate due to COVID-19 than other races, and many struggle with the effects of long COVID. Lingering illness and disability have removed some people from the workforce, while others struggle financially under the weight of caring for or losing others in their households. Funding intended for Black Americans to help mitigate these harms resulted in lawsuits. Similarly, money intended for COVID-19 support was rerouted to prisons, which had already contributed to the rapid-fire spread of COVID-19.

The pandemic prompted a shift to virtual learning, working, and communication. While some welcomed this shift, it further highlighted economic disparities for others. This also resulted in learning setbacks for students. Meanwhile, COVID-19 resurfaced distrust between the Black community and the medical establishment that stems, in part, from the Tuskegee experiment.

COVID-19 was also the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew after video of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer surfaced online.

‘We’re not given the option to get vaccinated’: Advocates work to narrow racial and ethnic disparities in Wisconsin

April 6, 2021

Some of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable populations struggle to access COVID-19 vaccines, and volunteers and community groups are trying to erase barriers.

‘Raise my taxes – now!’: the millionaires who want to give it all away

April 3, 2021

Abigail Disney has parted with $72m – and thinks the rich need to pay far more. As COVID widens the inequality gap an international league of the super-rich are urging governments to take their money as increased taxes.

Relief bill is most significant legislation for Black farmers since Civil Rights Act, experts say

March 15, 2021

$5 billion will go to farmers of color, who have lost 90 percent of their land over the past century because of systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt.

Special News Series: Rising Up For Justice! – Black Lives Matter Launches relief fund for Black people during pandemic

March 9, 2021

As Congress delays in passing COVID-19 relief legislation, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) and BLM Grassroots unveiled a $3 million, nationwide fund to assist Black people who are struggling financially during the pandemic.

COVID Black is using data and creating space to honor Black lives lost to virus

February 24, 2021

Kim Gallon creates a digital space, COVID Black, to memorialize each individual Black life that has been lost in the pandemic. COVID Black is intended to be a space of healing and create conversations about the future of Black health.

We Sure Aren’t Living in a Post-Racial World: U.N. Head Says White Supremacy a ‘Transnational Threat’

February 22, 2021

Throughout its history, the United States has embraced its addiction to white supremacy and continues to export it to the rest of the world.

Initial data show majority of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Milwaukee County have gone to white, younger residents

January 14, 2021

The vast majority of people being vaccinated right now are white and in younger age groups — figures that need to change in the coming weeks.

154,000 Black Women Left The Workforce In December Alone

January 13, 2021

Black families, especially mothers, are struggling economically with the CoVid-19 pandemic.

A Covid-19 Relief Fund Was Only for Black Residents. Then Came the Lawsuits.

January 3, 2021

Coronavirus has sickened and killed 2-3 times more black people than whites. Black business owners are losing their livelihoods, as stay-at-home orders are put into place. Due to decades of racial segregation, they did not have valuable houses they could tap for capital. So Oregon earmarked $62 million of its $1.4 billion in federal Covid-19 relief money to provide grants to Black residents, business owners and community organizations struggling due to the pandemic. Now the state faces lawsuits from groups who feel left out of this “affirmative action.”

How Black Parents Survived 2020

December 22, 2020

As this difficult year of racial reckoning and a global pandemic draws to a close, six African American families share how they have coped.