Month: February 2020

Fifty years after police killed the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, his fiancee and friends gathered at the site to remember the revolutionary.

 

NEAR WEST SIDE — Fifty years ago today, Fred Hampton was killed by Chicago police as he slept in his home.

Each year, supporters of the late chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party memorialize the anniversary of his death, dubbed International Revolutionary Day, with a vigil at the site of the police raid, 2337 W. Monroe St.

Source: 50 Years Ago, Fred Hampton Was Murdered By Police. Each Year, His Loved Ones Tell His Story: ‘This Legacy Is Under Attack’ – Block Club Chicago

Azellia White may be 105 years old, but she clearly remembers becoming the first African-American woman in Texas to receive her pilot’s license! This kindly centenarian made history as the first female black pilot in the Lone Star State!

Source: The First Female Black Pilot in Texas Turns 105: Azellia White’s Will to Fly

Clifford Williams was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a woman in 1976, despite maintaining his innocence and alibis backing his whereabouts at the time of the crime. Forty-three years after his conviction, Williams, together with his nephew, Nathan Myers, who was also implicated in the crime, were exonerated by the local…

Source: Florida man denied $2.5m compensation after 43 years in prison for crime he did not commit – Face2Face Africa

From New York rapper Princess Nokia to Cuba’s Orquesta Akokán, here are 10 artists reinventing the sound of Santería today.

Santería’s sacred influences are all over some of today’s best Latin music. Of course, the religion’s ceremonial rhythms and incantations have always held a place in Afro-Latino communities, yet they haven’t always entered into contemporary popular taste without backlash.

Santería — a syncretic mashup of Christian doctrines and west and central African spiritual figures — inevitably carries with it a history that many in the Western world would rather care to forget. The formation of Regla de Ocha, as it is also known, harnesses the legacy of enslaved Yoruba peoples first brought to the solares of Cuba and the Americas.

 

Source: Santería & Candomblé Artists You Should Know: List

We must cure Black Ignorance with Black Enlightenment. In the world over, we discuss frequently, the cost of black ignorance without juxtaposing that to…

Source: We must cure Black Ignorance with Black Enlightenment » Enlightenment Africa

Benjamin Lay is not to be overlooked.

 

One Sunday, 18th-century Quakers living in Abington, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, were met with a strange sight outside their morning meeting. The snow lay thick on the ground and there was Benjamin Lay, a member of the congregation, wearing little clothing, with his “right leg and foot uncovered,” almost knee-deep in the snow. When one Quaker after the next told him that he would get sick or that he should get inside and cover up, he turned to them. “Ah,” he said, “you pretend compassion for me, but you do not feel for the poor slaves in your fields, who go all winter half-clad.”

 

Source: The 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf Who Challenged Slavery, Meat-Eating, and Racism

Bewildered, sad and disappointed, Brazilians migrants sent from the United States to Mexico this week were left wondering how they had ended up in another country whose language they do not understand.

Source: Brazilians sent to Mexico by U.S. say they don’t understand why – Reuters

A new study shows that growing up in an affluent community brings “compounding privileges” and higher educational attainment—especially for white residents.

Source: Unpacking the Power of Privileged Neighborhoods