Tag Archive for "History"

Posts Tagged History

Gloria Browne-Marshall: First Black Woman to get media credentials for Supreme Court

Making history law Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall of, What’s the 411 Networks, is the first black women to get media credentials to cover the U.S. Supreme Court. What’s the 411 Networks, a digital news/media company, was founded by Ruth Morrison in 1993 and is also the first black owned media company to get credentialed to cover the country’s highest court.

Professor Browne-Marshall has already sat in on oral arguments during this term. Those cases include Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority last month which involved issues of corporate immunity and torture. Asked about her historic assignment, Browne-Marshall said, “My mission ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Vale Una Mulzac, radical bibliophile

The weekend Times published an obituary of Una Mulzac, founder of Liberation Bookstore, the Harlem bookstore that became a well-known and well-loved for selling books about African American identity and racial justice.

Mulzac opened the store in 1967 after returning from Guyana, where she participated in that country’s struggle for independence from Great Britain. It became a landmark, and closed in 2007, when Ms. Mulzac’s health deteriorated and she could no longer run it. Via the Times:

Her bookstore, born at a time when Harlem was ravaged by crime and heroin, became a neighborhood landmark like the Apollo or Sylvia’s restaurant and endured into the era of Starbucks and Old Navy. People came from all over Harlem and beyond to buy ...

Mulzac opened the store in ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Don Cornelius: Respecting those we’ve lost while holding them accountable for their actions

Yesterday, Don Cornelius, the man who started the groundbreaking Saturday morning show “Soul Train,” was found dead at 75 years old from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After an incredibly successful career and having altered the face of American music, he was ultimately not able to overcome his personal struggles.

Cornelius’s contributions to music can’t be overlooked. Dan Charnas writes at NPR,

Cornelius insisted on as much black presence behind the cameras as he induced in front of them, and he was one of the first black moguls to expand his brand beyond its origins: producing records (Cornelius was the executive producer behind the bubblegum-soul group Shalamar) and, eventually, award shows.

Cornelius’ cultural impact, however, went beyond the confines of black business ...

By Miriam • 12 years ago

Black History Month 2012: Black Women in American Culture and History

It’s February, and with that annual marker comes Black History Month. It’s such an important moment when the history of an entire community gets elevated, but also such a frustrating reminder of how every other month is white history month. When will get past this kind of marginalization?

Despite this, it is good to be reminded to dig a bit deeper and examine the specific history of a community that has been so integral to the fabric of this country. We have a lot of ground to make up for when it comes to the history we learn. In addition, the political climate has become so hostile that some states and communities are actively excluding people of color ...

By Eesha Pandit • 12 years ago

No thanks: A little historical truth-telling about Thanksgiving

The historical narrative that surrounds the American Thanksgiving feast is fairly recent.

The purportedly idyllic partnership between the European Pilgrims and New England Indians is actually only about 120 years old. After WWI, the story that we learn in school today became THE story. I believe deeply in the power of re-appropriating racist and sexist traditions, but I do not believe that we can effectively do that if we do not know the history of what we’re re-appropriating. So, today I’m sharing some links that I’ve used as resources over the years that have helped me understand the holiday, the story and get a little closer to the truth. We know that victors write history books, but we also know ...

The historical narrative that surrounds the American Thanksgiving feast is fairly recent.

The purportedly idyllic partnership between the European Pilgrims and New England Indians is actually only about 120 years old. After WWI, the story that we ...

By Vanessa • 12 years ago

Wednesday Weigh-In: Bachmann and Schlafly Lovefest Edition

We can’t be too surprised that Michele Bachmann is gaga for anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, but to contend that the woman who has made her very career trying to destroy gender equality is the most important woman in the country? Well, that’s definitely saying a lot about Bachmann’s politics. At a Tea Party event last month, Bachmann said:

[Shlafly] is my heroine and my example as a forerunner…She truly is the mother of the modern conservative movement. I think she is the most important woman in the United States in the last one hundred years. Whatever Phyllis Schlafly says, it’s important that we listen, because she’s there on every issue, on every front. She is our ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

The Feministing Five: Hanne Blank

Hanne Blank is a historian and author of several books including Virgin: The Untouched History, Unruly Appetites and the forthcoming Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality. Virgin, which came out a few years ago, is one of the most thoroughly-researched and readable books about sex, culture and history that you’ll ever find, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy. Straight will be out in February 2012 and I suspect it will be just as rigorous and equally riveting.

Blank is also the author of Big Big Love: A Sourcebook on Sex and Relationships for People of Size and Those Who Love Them. This book flies in the face of the idea that sex is only for ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Quick hit: the role of Black women activists in the Civil War

There’s no better way to start the week than with some hardcore history nerdporn. So it’ a good thing that the Disunion blog at the New York Times, which chronicling the Civil War as it happened 150 years ago, is has posted a really interesting article on the role of Black women activists in the abolition movement:

Boston and Philadelphia black women benefited from the unparalleled influence in their cities of white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who championed both the emancipation of slaves and the rights of women. In Boston, the New England Anti-Slavery Society, which Garrison helped found in 1833, welcomed black women like Susan Paul. When white women in Boston established the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society without ...