Bernice L. McFadden ruminates on all the things her mother has endured only to find herself spending her golden years in the midst of a deadly plague and state-sanctioned racism.
African Americans
Posted inEditor's Pick
Sold Back Into Slavery, She Sued for Restitution — and Won
Morgan Jerkins tells the story of Henrietta Wood — a woman sold back into slavery after being freed — who in 1878 was awarded $2,500, the largest known sum of restitution for enslavement by a United States court.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
A Minor Figure
While searching for photographs that depict black young women and girls living free in the second and third generations born after slavery, Saidiya Hartman finds a disturbing image.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand
The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
When Zora and Langston Took a Road Trip
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston gave Langston Hughes a lift to Tuskegee in her Nash coupe, nicknamed “Sassy Susie.” It was one of most fortuitous hangouts in literary history.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘I Inherited Luck’: Bridgett M. Davis on Her Family’s Life in the Numbers
In a new memoir, novelist Bridgett M. Davis reveals that her mother was a Numbers operator in Detroit from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Posted inHighlight, History, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Sacrificed for the Super Bowl: The Wiping Out of an Atlanta Neighborhood
Thirty years ago, the entire community of Lightning was destroyed to build the Georgia Dome. This oral history, told by displaced residents, compiles memories of a long-gone neighborhood.