July 9, 1841: Four Black Men executed for a bank robbery
On July 9, 1841, four Black men were executed. “Having a taste for blood and the destruction of black bodies,” the execution riveted the Euro-American...
Author : Meserette Kentake
Gwendolyn B. Bennett: The Harlem Renaissance Writer and Painter
Gwendolyn B. Bennett was an African-American poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. Although she never published her own volume of poetry, she was one of...
In Praise of the Ancestors by Mazisi Kunene
I have come to appreciate that African wisdom recognizes that there are other unseen forces in the universe apart from the creator. The Egun (Ancestors)...
Marie Couvent: A Controversial African-American Philanthropist
“Marie Couvent was the first [Black] woman to set the example of an enlightened charity, and that for a long time she was the only...
Zelda Wynn Valdes: The Creator of the Playboy Bunny Costume
“I just had a God-given talent for making people beautiful…” Zelda Wynn Valdes was a fashion legend who was the first African-American designer to open...
Nkosi Johnson: The Child AIDS Campaigner
Nkosi Johnson was a South African child activist. Johnson was born with HIV and died at the age of 12 in 2001. At the time...
E.R. Braithwaite: The Guyanese-American author of “To Sir With Love”
E. R. Braithwaite was a Guyanese-American writer, teacher, and diplomat, best known for his semi-autobiographical book To Sir, With Love (1959) which was adapted into a...
Lucille Clifton: The Award-winning Poet
“I write to celebrate life.” “I would like to be seen as a woman whose roots go back to Africa, who tried to honor being...
Olive Morris: The Black-British Activist
Olive Elaine Morris was a Black-British community leader and political activist, who campaigned for racial, gender and social equality, as well as squatters’ rights in the...
Thomas Peters: One of the Black Loyalist Founders of Sierra Leone
In 1999, Thomas Peters, one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone, was honored by the Sierra Leone government by being included in a movie...