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Advertisment for 1947 performance by singers and musicians Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong

Did the Blues Originate in New Orleans?

Something unusual happened in New Orleans music around 1895. Was it the birth of the blues?
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on April 18, 2022
Illustration of Cedric Robinson by Joe Ciardiello.

Cedric Robinson’s Radical Democracy

Rejecting the resignation of the 1970s and ’80s, Robinson found in the disinvested ruins of the city a new egalitarian form of politics.
by Jared Loggins via The Nation on April 18, 2022
Illustration by Nilé Livingston of the many flags used throughout America as symbols of freedom, patriotism, and protest.

Scars and Stripes

Philadelphia gave America its flag, along with other enduring icons of nationhood. But for many, the red, white and blue banner embodies a legacy of injustice.
by Martha S. Jones via Philadelphia Inquirer on April 6, 2022
Portraits of Dean Dixon, William Grant Still, and Margaret Bonds, three African American classical musicians.

A Prophecy Unfulfilled?

What a new book and six companion videos have to say about the fate of Black classical music in America.
by Mark N. Grant via The American Scholar on April 2, 2022

Reston's Roots: Black Activism in Virginia's New Town

In the 1960s, a man named Robert E. Simon Jr. dreamed of a city that would be open to all, regardless of race or income-Reston, VA.
by Charlotte Muth via Boundary Stones on March 31, 2022
James Brown on stage singing, with people standing in shadow behind him.

Hanif Abdurraqib Breaks Down History’s Famous Beefs

On who gets caught in the crosshairs when it comes to “beef."
by Hanif Abdurraqib via Literary Hub on March 8, 2022
Split frame image of Norman Mailer, in black and white.

My Norman Mailer Problem—and Ours

Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.
by Darryl Pinckney via The Nation on March 7, 2022
Henry Louis Gates Jr.

How Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Helped Remake the Literary Canon

The scholar has changed the way Black authors get read and the way Black history gets told.
by Henry Louis Gates Jr., David Remnick via The New Yorker on February 19, 2022
Don Cornelius and the Soul Train Dancers on the dance floor, with fist raised in the Black Power salute, at the end of a show.

Soul Train and the Desire for Black Power

Don Cornelius had faith that Black culture would attract a mass audience, and a belief that Black culture should be in the hands of Black people.
by Mark Anthony Neal via The Nation on December 22, 2021
Title card of the article styled like a Tina Turner album cover.

Manhattan in East St. Louis

The Club Manhattan could hold about 250 people. They did not know it at the time, but they were the earliest witnesses to the rise of the Queen of Rock & Roll.
by Maureen Mahon via Oxford American on December 7, 2021
Yams under concrete with the leaves growing out of a crack in the sidewalk

The Deep and Twisted Roots of the American Yam

The American yam is not the food it says it is. How that came to be is a story of robbery, reinvention, and identity.
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on November 24, 2021
Print announcement for Florida CB personality "Bow Weevil," featuring a photo of a Black man's face on a drawing of a bowl weevil holding a microphone.

How Black CB Radio Users Created an Audible Community

CB radio was portrayed as a mostly white enthusiasm in its heyday, but Black CB users were active as early as 1959.
by Ashawnta Jackson, Art M. Blake, Tyler Watts, Jared Barton via JSTOR Daily on November 18, 2021
Image of B.B. King on stage playing guitar.

When Young Elvis Met the Legendary B.B. King

King recalled: “I liked his voice, though I had no idea he was getting ready to conquer the world.”
by Daniel de Visé via Literary Hub on November 16, 2021
Gladys Bentley

The Overlooked LGBTQ+ History of the Harlem Renaissance

Acknowledging the queer culture of the Harlem Renaissance is essential in order to paint a full picture of the period.
by Olivia B. Waxman, Arpita Aneja via TIME on October 11, 2021
Black and white photo of Howard Fuller outside Malcolm X Liberation University

The Lost Promise of Black Study

Even as they carve out space for Black scholarship, established universities remain deeply complicit in racial capitalism. We must think beyond them.
by Andrew J. Douglas, Jared Loggins via Boston Review on September 24, 2021
Chester Higgins photo of man looking out the window of a cafe on to the early morning street

Chester Higgins’s Life in Pictures

All along the way, his eye is trained on moments of calm, locating an inherent grace, style, and sublime beauty in the Black everyday.
by Jordan Coley via The New Yorker on August 27, 2021
Gladys Knight and the Pips performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

The Misunderstood Talent of Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight and the Pips have always been more beloved by fans than by music historians, but they are essential to the evolution of soul.
by Emily J. Lordi via The New Yorker on August 13, 2021
Sly Stone performing in front of crowd

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary "Summer of Soul," revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.
by David Hajdu via The Nation on July 29, 2021
Janet Robinson and Yolanda Grayson King inside Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church

In Virginia, a Historic Black Neighborhood Grapples With Whether to Grow

Some in The Settlement, founded by formerly enslaved people, say development should be allowed to create generational Black wealth while others disagree.
by Antonio Olivo via Washington Post on July 18, 2021
Album cover for "We Insist!", which features African American men sitting at a lunch counter

The Sounds of Struggle

Sixty years ago, a pathbreaking jazz album fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation. Black artists are taking similar strides today.
by Michael Beyea Reagan via Boston Review on June 24, 2021

What's Going On? 50 Years Ago, The Answer Was Bigger Than Marvin Gaye

In 1971, a wave of Black artists released explosive new work that put its politics front and center.
by Mark Anthony Neal via NPR on May 21, 2021
Photograph of Prince's Hot Chicken restaurant superimposed over a photograph of an empty shopping center

Notes on Hot Chicken, Race, and Culinary Crossover

How does Black food go viral among white folks?
by Cynthia R. Greenlee via The Counter on May 11, 2021
African American men in suits, sitting outside of a drugstore

The Game Is Changing for Historians of Black America

For centuries, stories of Black communities have been limited by racism in the historical record. Now we can finally follow the trails they left behind.
by William Sturkey via The Atlantic on May 4, 2021

Decolonize Hipsters

The history of hipsters is a not-so-secret history of race in the Atlantic world.
by Grégory Pierrot via Guernica on April 20, 2021
James Weldon Johnson.

James Weldon Johnson’s Ode to the “Deep River” of American History

What an old poem says about the search for justice following the Capitol riot.
by David W. Blight via The New Republic on March 2, 2021
black and white photos of children

The Magazine That Helped 1920s Kids Navigate Racism

Mainstream culture denied Black children their humanity—so W. E. B. Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book to assert it.
by Anna E. Holmes via The Atlantic on February 12, 2021
Painting of a couple kissing under a broomstick

Broomstick Weddings and the History of the Atlantic World

From Kentucky to Wales and all across the Atlantic, the enslaved and downtrodden got married – by leaping over a broom. Why?
by Tyler D. Parry via Aeon on December 14, 2020
Photo of KRS-One superimposed on photo of NY subway station in the Bronx

How KRS-One’s ‘Sound of Da Police’ Went From Anti-Cop Anthem to Theme Song and Back Again

The 1993 song reinvigorated the rap legend’s career — and against all odds became a Hollywood (and police) favorite
by Eric Ducker via Medium on July 25, 2020

Dreams of a Revolution Deferred

How African-Americans in Early America celebrated the Declaration of Independence's ideals, even as basic freedoms were denied to them.
by Derrick R. Spires via Uncommon Sense on June 30, 2020
Zora Neale Hurston in a bookstore with a copy of 'American Stuff'

How Did Artists Survive the First Great Depression?

What is the role of artists in a crisis?
by David A. Taylor via Literary Hub on June 29, 2020
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