UTHSC Nursing Student Serves on COVID-19 Front Line in New York City
Amber Gordon, RN, just completed 21 straight days of 12-hour shifts serving as a nurse in one of the hospitals that was hardest-hit by COVID-19 – Elmhurst Hospital in Queens,…
Supreme Court Bans School Segregation, Sparking Massive White Resistance
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregation in public education was unconstitutional, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine in place since 1896, and sparking…
North Carolina Proposes Compensation for Victims of Decades-Long Forced Sterilization Program
On May 16, 2012, the North Carolina legislature considered a bill recommending compensation for victims of the state’s forced sterilization program. Beginning in 1933, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina…
How Tayari Jones discovered an ‘undersung American masterpiece’
When writer Tayari Jones first discovered Ann Petry’s “The Street” as a college student, the sober cover art seemed to suggest it was an “Important Book with Serious Themes,” she…
‘The Black Cowboy’ will shine light on history hidden in plain sight
Documentary in production lends insight into African-American cowboys and rodeo Denard Butler is not the typical cowboy in Checotah, Oklahoma, known as the steer wrestling capital of America. He holds…
These Brands Are Still Tapping Into Nostalgia for Slavery, Whether You Realize It or Not
Mascots from the Jim Crow era are alive and well Dairy brand Land O’Lakes is hardly alone in using a cultural stereotype as a mascot for generations—and it’s also not…
First Look at Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods
The Oscar winner on his Vietnam War drama: “I’m not being disrespectful to any Vietnam film…except maybe The Green Berets with John Wayne.” Five young African American soldiers are listening…
Alvin Ailey’s beautiful vision for dance, captured in thousands of photos
It’s a simple photograph: a young man staring directly into the camera, arms folded. In the image captured in 1962, dance maestro Alvin Ailey looks defiant. Rhea Combs also sees…
Freedom Riders Attacked in Anniston, Alabama
In 1961, a group of civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders began a desegregation campaign. The interracial group rode together on interstate buses headed south from Washington, D.C.,…
After reparations | The Washington Post
How a scholarship helped — and didn’t help — descendants of victims of the 1923 Rosewood racial massacre. TALLAHASSEE — Ever since Morgan Carter was a little girl, her grandmother…